China tech stocks rebound on buying from Cathie Wood and Tencent

[HONG KONG] Chinese technology stocks rallied for a second day, as sentiment was boosted by Tencent Holdings' stock buyback and as Cathie Wood bought back into JD.com after a strong set of results.

The Hang Seng Tech Index extended its advance to as much as 5.3 per cent, adding to a gain of more than 2 per cent on Monday, after a five-week rout that took the gauge to the lowest level since inception last year.

While there's no indication that China's regulatory crackdown will ease, the absence of significant new initiatives in recent days has helped draw in bargain hunters.

Investors are also taking a cue from technical charts that show the index plunged into oversold territory last week. "We are seeing lots of bottom-fishing activities in the market, including strong buying of Tencent and Alibaba," said Jackson Wong, asset management director at Amber Hill Capital. "Companies that have fallen the most and prove to have solid fundamentals will lead the rebound."

JD.com's quarterly sales beating estimates helped turn the market mood, as did Ms Wood's Ark Investment Management buying American depository receipts of the company on Monday. Tencent's move to continue purchases of its shares added to the positive tone.

Ark's purchase of JD.com came after the thematic tech-focused global investment firm reduced its China holdings to almost zero this year, and as Tencent bought back 230,000 of its own shares on Monday.

Shares of Tencent, China's biggest company by market value, rose as much as 7.8 per cent while its rival Alibaba Group Holding, which dropped to a record low in Hong Kong on Monday, gained as much as 6.1 per cent.

JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce giant, jumped as much as 12 per cent, the most since July 29, after its second-quarter revenue beat average analyst estimate.

Meituan climbed 12 per cent while Kuaishou Technology rose almost 17 per cent, the most since February.

While investors are still concerned about regulations, earnings such as those from JD.com "have partly offset some of the worries", Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong, said by phone. "Valuations look appealing if investors want to hold for six months or longer."

The Hong Kong benchmark tracking the biggest technology stocks in China has lost more than 40 per cent since a February peak as Beijing conducted a sweeping crackdown on private sectors to reduce inequalities in the world's second-biggest economy.

MSCI, the world's biggest index provider, shook off concerns about the "investability" of Chinese stocks, citing previous instances where markets rebounded in the aftermath. Regulatory compliance has weighed on China "every three, four, five years and obviously the markets have sold off at the time. But very quickly afterwards, the markets have recovered and gone through to new heights," MSCI chairman and chief executive officer Henry Fernandez told Bloomberg Television's Haidi Lun and Shery Ahn in an interview.

Some investors have taken the opportunity to buy during the selloff. Veteran fund manager Hugh Young of Aberdeen Standard Investments said earlier this month that his firm bought the dip in Tencent and kept most of its other big-tech holdings largely unchanged.

BLOOMBERG