Stocks buoyed by Beijing praise for Alibaba, Tencent

China's top economic planner praised a number of platform companies, including Alibaba (9988) and Tencent (0700), yesterday, which helped lift tech shares and drive up the overall local stock market.

The National Development and Reform Commission said they had become key contributors to tech innovations that China was prioritizing, such as semiconductors and autonomous driving.

It highlighted Tencent and Meituan's (3690) investments in cloud computing and semiconductors as well as Alibaba's efforts in digitizing agriculture.

This came after fines of 7.12 billion yuan (HK$7.7 billion) for Ant Group and 2.99 billion yuan for Tencent last week, signaling the end of a crackdown.

The Hang Seng Index rose 201 points to close at 18,860 yesterday, with the tech gauge jumping 2 percent. Alibaba advanced 1.2 percent and Tencent added 1.9 percent.

Chinese video-sharing website Bilibili (9626) surged 6 percent, while short video platform Kuaishou Technology (1024) climbed 3.3 percent.

The Securities and Futures Commission said it aims to introduce a paperless securities market by mid-2025, according to its chairman Tim Lui Tim-leung.

In money markets, onshore yuan rebounded to a nearly three-week high of 7.1899 per US dollar.