Alibaba Surges Over 5% Ahead Of Earnings As Hang Seng Tracks Wall Street Higher

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index rose over 2% in opening trade on Thursday, following an upbeat session on Wall Street overnight.

Shares of Alibaba rose over 5% in Hong Kong on Thursday morning ahead of its earnings release. Bank of America Securities analyst Eddie Leung maintained a "buy" rating on its U.S. stock while lowering its price target from $162 to $155, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Shares of JD.com and Baidu also rose over 4%.

Macro News: China is set to unleash a military drill that will blockade Taiwan until Sunday afternoon following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, reported the South China Morning Post.

Top G7 diplomats have slammed China for destabilizing the region over Pelosi’s visit, saying they were concerned by its threatening actions, especially the live-fire exercises and economic coercion, as per the report.

Also Read: SoftBank Group Raises $22B Through Deals That Would Slash Its Alibaba Stake

Company News: Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY has raised $22 billion in cash through deals that would significantly trim its stake in Alibaba over the coming years, reported Financial Times.

The e-commerce giant, meanwhile, named Irene Yun-Lien Lee, Chairman of Hysan Development Company Ltd, and Albert Kong Ping Ng, former chairman of Ernst & Young China, as independent directors on its board, according to Yahoo Finance.

EV maker Nio aims to conduct more research and development on lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) batteries, CnEVPost reported, citing local media.

Tesla Inc TSLA rival XPeng is set to announce its second-quarter earnings on Aug. 23, while Li Auto will do so on Aug. 15.

Global Markets: U.S. markets rallied on Wednesday led by better-than-expected economic data and corporate earnings. The Nasdaq climbed 2.59%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.29%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.56%.

Elsewhere on Thursday in Asia, Australia’s ASX 200 gained 0.3% lower. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.61%, while the South Korean Kospi advanced 0.63%. China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.5%.