STOCKS | Hong Kong Stocks Rise as Hang Seng Index Reaches 26,000

Hong Kong stocks continued their upward trend for the second consecutive day, with the Hang Seng Index surpassing the 26,000 mark. The index rose by nearly 420 points at its peak, reaching 26,250, marking a two-week high. According to RTHK, by midday, the Hang Seng Index stood at 26,088 points, an increase of 254 points or approximately 1%, with the main board's half-day turnover around HKD 140.2 billion. The technology index rose over 1%, with Alibaba shares increasing by about 2.5% following the launch of its enterprise-level intelligent platform "Wukong," which allows coordination of multiple intelligent agents to handle complex tasks on a single interface. Ant Group's acquisition of a stake in Bright Smart Securities has been completed, with the transaction expected to be finalized on the 30th of this month. Bright Smart Securities resumed trading, surging by approximately 66% by midday. Other securities stocks also performed well, with CITIC Securities rising over 7%. Healthcare and automotive stocks showed positive performance, with Geely Automobile climbing over 5%, making it the best-performing blue-chip stock. Financial and real estate stocks mostly moved upwards. However, international oil prices fell, negatively impacting oil and petrochemical stocks. CNOOC dropped over 3%, making it the worst-performing blue-chip stock.