Hong Kong stock index compiler leaves blue chip Hang Seng benchmark unchanged in latest quarterly review

No new companies will be added to Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index in March, leaving the total number of blue chip constituents unchanged at 82, according to the latest quarterly review by Hang Seng Indexes Company on Friday.

The review was the first time in the past three quarters that saw no new inclusions to the benchmark. In the last rebalancing in December, Chinese electric-vehicle maker Li Auto and pharmaceutical company WuXi Apptec were included, while no members were dropped.

The Hang Seng Index has been slowly adding new members since the compiler unveiled a sweeping overhaul in 2021 that aimed to eventually boost the number of constituents to 100 over an unspecified period of time.

However, the city’s battered market has hurt the index compiler’s ambitions of hitting the target any time soon as investor sentiment remains weak because of the ongoing slowdown in China following the post-Covid reopening, and deflation has become more entrenched leading to a contraction in consumer and producer prices.