Stock brokers in Hong Kong swamped by 'once in a century' stock frenzy

By John Cheng, Charlotte Yang and Winnie Hsu

Stock brokers in Hong Kong are having one of the busiest periods in their career, with a 31-year veteran describing the city’s sudden rally as a “once in a century” event.
 

Edmund Hui, chief executive officer of one of Hong Kong’s biggest local brokerages, Bright Smart Securities, said his firm has experienced a “massive jump” in account openings. Many of his customer support staffers have canceled planned holidays, and are standing by 24 hours a day to handle the unprecedented surge in client inquiries.

Brokers across Hong Kong are experiencing a similar euphoria as the stocks of Chinese companies soar in the wake of landmark stimulus moves by Beijing last week. Tiger Brokers, a popular trading platform among Hong Kong retail investors, said it posted a 73 per cent jump in account openings last week.

The surge of investor interest has also come with telltale signs of overheating in some pockets of the market, including 400 per cent-plus gains in some penny stocks on Wednesday and a doubling in share prices of several property developers that have defaulted on their debt. But for now at least, there’s little sign of buyer exhaustion. 

Turnover hit HK$434 billion ($55.9 billion) on Wednesday, just shy of a record reached Monday, as stocks hit multi-year highs. Some brokers and banks have experienced an overload in their systems, making it difficult for clients to log in to mobile apps, according to local media reports. 

“It was a busy day, and I had no lunch due to non-stop inquiries from clients,” said Kenny Wen, head of investment strategy at KGI Asia Ltd. “We might stay busy for the next one to two months, as trading volume will probably remain high given the positive market sentiment.” 

Sat Duhra, a fund manager at Janus Henderson Group Plc., was awake at 3 a.m. checking the prices of Chinese companies’ American depositary receipts. His meetings with analysts Wednesday showed interest dying down in markets like South Korea and India. “China is the only game in town,” he said.

The city’s stock benchmark Hang Seng Index jumped 6.2 per cent on Wednesday, while the closely-watched Hang Seng China Enterprises Index ended the day 7.1 per cent higher. China’s CSI 300 Index officially entered a bull market on Monday, before closing for a week-long public holiday. 

The gains have made Chinese stocks the best performing major market this year. That’s a sea change from what was seen for most of the past few years, when China was a tough play for foreign portfolio managers, thanks to a struggling economy and a prolonged property slump. Now, conviction is building among traders that the bull run has further to go. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon index of US-listed Chinese stocks rose 2.4 per cent at 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday, widening its five-day rally to 25 per cent. 

“We heard the debate is now with foreign long-only funds on whether to close the underweight in Chinese equities or not,” said Linda Lam, head of equity advisory for North Asia at Union Bancaire Privée. “Perhaps the fear of losing out on the relative performance for this month has driven panic buying mode in the stock market today.”

The sharp moves in stock prices are making chasing the rally challenging for many.

“Everything is moving so fast,” said Daisy Li, fund manager at EFG Asset Management. “The speed of which the market rallied is actually making it very difficult for long-term investors to chase and add position.”

The Hang Seng Index’s one-day move was the biggest since November 2022, when the end of China’s zero-Covid policies gave a shot in the arm to the struggling stock market. 

Those with longer memories are looking a bit further back. Hui from Bright Smart said the market reminds him of 2015, when a stampede of stock-buying caused bull runs in Hong Kong and mainland China.

The bubble eventually burst in mid-2015 and stock prices in Hong Kong halved over the following nine months.