Internet abuzz as Jack Ma visits Hangzhou, HSI rallies

Melody Chen and Reuters

China's internet was abuzz with news that Alibaba (9988) co-founder Jack Ma Yun had returned to Hangzhou last week and visited the headquarters of the e-commerce giant.

Alibaba's stock rose 3.2 percent amid the news as Hong Kong's stocks rallied yesterday.

The news and photos on social media platform Weibo about Ma's visit generated huge interest as his previous two visits to the HQ were followed by radical changes at the tech giant.

After Ma visited Hangzhou last March, Alibaba revealed it would split into six main business units and adopt a holding company management model dubbed 1+6+N in the biggest revamp of its history.

And when Ma appeared again at the end of last June, the then-chairman and chief executive Daniel Zhang Yong stepped down, handing over the reins to Joseph Tsai Chung-hsin and Eddie Wu Yongming.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index jumped 360 points as sentiment improved on China's latest measure to restrict short selling and quantitative trading strategies.

The rally also tracked an overnight gain on Wall Street following US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's dovish comments.

On Tuesday, Powell had told Congress that since the US economy was no longer running too hot the central bank has to weigh risks and would be able to cut rates once inflation makes more progress.

"Powell's reiterating the message that if inflation continues to cool the Fed should be ready to move rates. It does also feel like he's added a bit more emphasis on the labor market as well," said Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones in New York. "It looks like September and December are back on the table for rate cuts."

Chinese electric vehicle makers rose after Tesla shares jumped for the 11th day in a row, with Li Auto (2015) surging 7.1 percent, the top gainer among blue-chip stocks, and XPeng (9868) jumping 11.7 percent.

Biotech stocks also gained, with Frontage (1521) surging 16.2 percent, RemeGen (9995) gaining 15.5 percent, WuXi Biologics (2269) rising 4.3 percent and WuXi AppTec (2359) climbing 5.1 percent.

Shares of Xtep International (1368) rose 6.4 percent as the sportswear maker said its sales grew 10 percent year-on-year for the June quarter.

But Comtec Solar Systems (0712) tumbled 33.3 percent as it faced liquidation petitions.

In money markets, the onshore yuan closed at 7.271 against the US dollar yesterday, rising 49 basis points from Wednesday's closing price, recovering from the 8-month low. Trading volume surged to over US$42 billion (HK$328 billion), more than 1.8 times higher than the day before.

In other news, Fidelity International said Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund scheme earned a 4.9 percent return in the first half.