A digital billboard shows the stock information of Kuaishou Technology in Hong Kong, China, Feb. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)
HONG KONG, April 1 (Xinhua) -- More than 150 companies were listed in Hong Kong last year. At the beginning of this year, Kuaishou Inc., Baidu Inc. and Bilibili Inc. landed the Hong Kong stock market one after another. In January, an average of over 10 billion Hong Kong dollars entered the Hong Kong stock market from the mainland on a daily basis.
"The strong performance in the securities market and continued inflow of capital are testimony to the fact that the Hong Kong's competitiveness and resilience in the financial markets has only gone from strength to strength," said Christopher Hui recently, the Secretary for Financial Services and Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.
Since last year, initial public offerings (IPOs) in Hong Kong have been always hot with many high-profile IPOs lining up to list. According to statistics from the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, 154 businesses listed in Hong Kong last year with combined fund-raising of 397.5 billion Hong Kong dollars, the highest since 2010.
The trend has continued this year. In the first two months of 2021, 21 businesses made debut on Hong Kong stock market.
"As many widely-watched businesses keep coming to Hong Kong, in particular those in the new economy that are highly attractive to various types of investors, there has been more and more energy brought to the capital market here," said Wang Lei, chief executive of Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Mainland businesses and capital played a major role in driving Hong Kong's fervent IPO deals.
In 2020, more than 70 percent of listings were made by mainland companies, with their IPO exceeding 3.9 trillion Hong Kong dollars and their scale of IPO accounting for 99 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, in 2020, the southbound capital reached a record high of 670 billion Hong Kong dollars, exceeding the previous three years combined. On Jan. 19, 2021, the capital inflow recorded 26.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, the highest for a single trading day.
Analysts predicted that Hong Kong's IPO market will remain strong in the rest of the year driven by new economy upstarts and U.S.-listed mainland businesses.
Deloitte China forecast that IPOs will top 400 billion Hong Kong dollars this year and there will be some 130 new listings, and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) believes that the financial hub will hopefully once again become the largest IPO fund-raising center globally.
"The amount of capital flowing into Hong Kong stock market from the mainland this year will reach 95 billion U.S. dollars," Goldman Sachs predicted in a research report. In addition, Morgan Stanley announced a more positive prediction that the capital inflow may reach 130 billion U.S. dollars this year.
According to a survey from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Hong Kong's financial sector will generally embrace more opportunities from the deepening reform and opening-up of the country in the future.
The chief executive of the HKMA Eddie Yue said as part of the effort to forge closer financial ties, the launch of two landmark programs, namely the southbound trading of Bond Connect and the wealth management connect in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, are under preparation.
Looking at the future, Hui pointed out various programs to improve mainland-Hong Kong financial integration will bolster Hong Kong's financial development, stressing that Hong Kong as one of the freest economies will continue to welcome businesses and investors from all over the world. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.7654 Hong Kong dollars) (Contributed by Zhang Huan, edited by Zhang Yuan with Xinhua Silk Road, zhangyuan11@xinhua.org)
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