Why Alibaba, Other Tech Peers Are Trading Higher In Hong Kong Today

Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese tech giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA, Baidu Inc BIDU, JD.Com JD, and Tencent Holdings TCEHY traded higher in Hong Kong on Thursday at press time.

This came after these Chinese tech giants mostly firmed in U.S. markets as well on Wednesday, with Tencent being the only loser. 

The Macro Factors: The benchmark Hang Seng Index started on a positive note and gained 0.43%. 

Elsewhere, Australia's ASX 200 gained 0.66%, and the SGXNifty in Singapore gained 0.41%.

The stocks rose amid investors' hope that policymakers in Beijing will step up stimulus measures to support businesses as COVID-19 continued to impact businesses drastically. 

Meanwhile, China's services activity slumped to its weakest level in more than two years in April. The Caixin China Services purchasing managers' index dropped to 36.2 in April, the lowest since February 2020. 

On Thursday, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority also raised its benchmark interest rate to 1.25% in the biggest hike since 2000. 

Company In News: According to Reuters, China's JD.com is among the 80 firms on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's list of entities facing possible expulsion from American exchanges. Earlier, Chinese regulators had asked some of the country's U.S.-listed firms, including Alibaba, Baidu, and JD.com, to prepare more audit disclosures.

JD.com announced a special cash dividend of US$0.63 per ordinary share or US$1.26 per ADS. The aggregate amount of the special dividend will be approximately US$2.0 billion, the company said.