New | Hong Kong and Chinese stock markets: technology stocks lead winners but gaming stocks headline losers in 2015
Uncertainty clouds picture in Chinese markets going into 2016
It was a turbulent year on Hong Kong and China stock markets as slowing mainland growth and global trade combined with tumbling commodity prices to buffet equities, although some sectors such as technology emerged stronger.
“The Chinese equity market had an intense year, to say the least,” said Gerry Alfonso, a director at Shenwan Hongyuan Group in Shanghai. “After all the ups and downs it seems that the market is now finally normalising, which is clearly a good development.”
Technology stocks emerged as big winners this year, propelling the Shenzhen Composite Index up more than 60 per cent and pushing the NASDAQ-style ChiNext Price Index to almost double its opening value. In Hong Kong, Tencent Holdings gained around a third and was consistently among the most heavily traded stocks.
“The business prospects of IT companies in China remain incredibly strong with many of those companies in full expansion. The sector also has the support from the authorities and that’s a pretty powerful combination,” Alfonso said.
“New China” industries including technology, healthcare and consumer discretionary are set to continue outperforming “old China” enterprises like energy, industrials and materials, say analysts at Morgan Stanley and BlackRock Investment Institute.
Insurers were best in class. They largely withstood the market turmoil on the strength of their fundamentals, with Ping An Insurance the standout
The strong performance of the IT sector came as the Hang Seng Index will finish the year almost 2,000 points down, having opened on 23,605 and peaked above 28,000 when a rally lifted the market to ultimately unsustainable heights.
