Hong Kong's internet platforms, which Morningstar says are starting to earn revenue from AI adoption, rallied while Korean chipmakers fell, separating two kinds of Asian AI exposure in one session.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 3.67% on Thursday, November 5, to close at 24,796.98, and the Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 5.55% to 4,154.29, according to closing figures published by Bastille Post. The Standard put the benchmark’s gain at 877 points and said the tech gauge was back above 4,000. Hong Kong’s full-day turnover reached HK$356.6 billion, a nearly three-month high, as Alibaba rose 8.5% and Tencent 7.2%.
The rebound ran against the direction of chip stocks elsewhere in the region. By late morning, South Korea’s Kospi was down 3.5% after briefly losing more than 4% on heavy selling of chipmakers, with Samsung Electronics down 5.7% and SK Hynix down 7.4%, the Associated Press reported in a story carried by Bay to Bay News. Taiwan’s Taiex was 1.6% lower at the same point, and the Kospi closed 5.28% down at 5,383.8, CNBC reported.
The session separated China’s AI platforms from the region’s chip suppliers. Morningstar analysts, quoted by Reuters in a report carried by Business Recorder, said "China and Hong Kong remain relatively attractive" after October’s correction, and said they are bullish on Alibaba and Tencent because AI adoption is beginning to translate into revenue growth. Reuters linked the improved mood to the US midterm elections and to Wall Street’s overnight gains. Hours after Hong Kong closed, Wall Street reversed: all three major US indexes had their worst day since April 2025 as investors sold chip and data-center stocks on fears that the Democratic sweep would slow the data-center buildout, CNBC reported.
Internet, gaming and consumer names carried the index
The buying started at the open. The Hang Seng rose 397 points to 24,316 in early trade, with Tencent up about 3% and Alibaba up more than 2%, according to Dimsum Daily. By midday the index was 3.09% higher at 24,659.03, China Daily Hong Kong reported, and the afternoon added to the gain. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks mainland companies listed in Hong Kong, closed 3.87% higher at 8,369.08, Bastille Post reported.
The Standard’s list of gainers was broad. NetEase rose 9%, electric-vehicle maker Nio 8.9% and Xiaomi 8.8%. Sino Biopharmaceutical was the best-performing blue chip, up 9.2%, after disclosing an option and license agreement with Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim covering six preclinical cancer programs that could generate up to US$7 billion. Laopu Gold gained 8.3% and Zijin Mining 3% as gold prices recovered.
Mainland markets moved far less. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.1% to 3,689 and the Shenzhen Component Index 1.19% to 11,471, The Standard reported. Reuters had the STAR 50 index of Shanghai’s tech board up 2.11% at the lunch break, after a run in which it fell 3.8% when the financial regulator called AI investment overly concentrated, then jumped 9.92% in the following session.
Hardware and oil were the losing side of the trade
The weakest blue chip in Hong Kong was Lenovo, the PC and server maker, which closed down 6.8% after rebounding 6% the previous day, according to The Standard. Oil producers also fell: PetroChina lost 4.2% and CNOOC 2.1%. The Standard tied the energy selloff to hopes for an end to the Iran war after Democrats’ midterm victory, and Reuters said Brent crude futures had dropped nearly 9% overnight.
Cliff Zhao, chief economist at CCB International, told Reuters he expects US-China competition in advanced technology to continue, and that "China’s domestic technology supply chain may become further differentiated." In his view, hardware exporters that depend on US spending on AI could be hurt, while makers of graphics processors, chip equipment, advanced packaging and computing infrastructure could benefit from China’s push for self-reliance. Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, told Reuters that "US-China relations will become more uncertain next year."
Zhao’s split maps onto Thursday’s tape. Many of Hong Kong’s biggest gainers sell games, phones, cars and online services to Chinese consumers, while the regional losers were chipmakers in Seoul and a hardware maker in Hong Kong. Morningstar’s case for Alibaba and Tencent rests on AI showing up in their revenue, which puts the focus on what the two companies report about AI demand in their next results.
Wall Street’s AI selloff tests the gap at Friday’s open
The US session sharpened the split Hong Kong had drawn. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, the S&P 500 lost 4.36% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.52% into correction territory, CNBC reported. Broadcom fell 10% and Nvidia 9%, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF lost more than 12%, its worst day since March 2020.
The Hang Seng Tech Index closed at 3,839 on November 2, The Standard reported that day, when the Hang Seng finished at 23,393 on turnover of HK$204.8 billion. Thursday’s close leaves the tech gauge about 8% higher in three sessions and the benchmark up about 6%. If Alibaba and Tencent hold most of that gain while chip stocks keep falling in New York, Seoul and Tokyo, the split between China’s AI platforms and the region’s AI hardware suppliers will look like a lasting reallocation; a broad pullback in Hong Kong on Friday would point the other way.