Business

Hong Kong FinTech Week came to a close today with the discussion of digital payment, with more than 400 exhibitors and 20,000 attendees joining the event this week.  The five-day event is organised by InvestHK and supported by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, containing physical conferences and online activities. The FinTech Week aims to bring together global leaders from the innovation, technology and finance industries to share insights, present innovative ideas and build business connections. Over 300 speakers gave views on fintech development, including a global market overview, the fintech industry in mainland China and the Greater Bay Area, application of emerging technologies and virtual assets.    Barry Mak, Chief Operations Officer of BBMSL, a digital payment provider based in the city, said it was the first time his company participated in Hong Kong FinTech Week.  “FinTech Week is a milestone for everybody to learn about digital payments, not only small merchants or start-ups,” said Mak, adding that the activity gave his business a platform to gain more exposure. Koernraad Michael Van Huffet is a director Risk Apac for SAS Institute Hong Kong, a data-analysis software provider. He attended FinTech Week for three days. “It is brilliant for me to learn new things such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies,” said Koernraad. “I like the payment topic most since it was straight on the subject that I needed for my study,” he added. “This year, we witnessed many highly promising fintech ventures and were also really pleased by the participation from the various corporate champions,” said King Leung, head of FinTech at InvestHK. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau unveiled a Policy Statement on the Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong before the opening of the event, to set out the policy position and approaches to facilitate a vibrant virtual …

  Hong Kong Stock market arrested a five-day tumbling on Wednesday, up 1% compared to the previous close as the price of Meituan and Tencent sharply grew, while Alibaba underperformed the market. Hang Seng Index closed at 15,317.67, increasing 152.08 points compared to the previous close. The market opened down at 15,096.32 in the morning and climbed to its highest at 15,584.06 before the lunch break. The city’s tech index rose 2.48% to 2,956.41 against the previous close. The stock price of Meituan (03690) rallied 5.02% while Tencent (00700) and Xiaomi (01810) surged 2.52% and 3.51% respectively. However, Alibaba (09988) fell 2.04% against the market. Medical and pharmaceutical stocks are doing well, as Wuxi Biologics (02269) increased 3.36%and Alibaba Health Information Technology Limited (00241) bounced nearly 9% to close the market. The company expected a profit of over 80 million yuan in the past six months from April, said the report released late Tuesday. CSPC PHARMA (01093) and Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Ltd. (03692) surged 5.33% and 5.26% respectively. But property stocks dragged down the market’s gains, with this sub-index slipped 0.71%.Hang Lung Properties (00101) plunged 6.53%, the worst among blue chips. The Shanghai Composite increased 0.78% to 2,999.50 points and the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 1.68% to 10,818.33 on Wednesday. China’s Central Bank said in an article that it would ensure health markets, including stocks, properties and debts, and would further develop the currency market.

Hong Kong stocks tumbled after the Federal Reserve’s 75 basis points rate hike. Ongoing rate hikes by the U.S central bank alongside concerns about a global economic slowdown has been posing pressure to global markets. The Hang Seng index slumped by 1.61% to 18,147.95, from this morning's 18,080.93. The index dropped to 17,965 points during the trading day, reaching a historic low since 2011. Bank stocks contracted in general. HSBC plunged more than 3% while Hang Seng and Standard Chartered dipped more than 1%. Real estate stocks closed in red, with New World Development recording a more than 3% slip. “It’s not time to buy yet as Hong Kong’s stock gauges fall to new lows, with aggressive US interest-rate hikes adding to pessimism around Covid Zero and the ongoing property crisis in China,” Manish Bhargava, fund manager at Singapore’s Straits Investment Holdings told the Standard. Following the Fed’s third consecutive hike, both HSBC and Bank of China raised their prime rate by 12.5 percentage points to 5.125%. Standard Chartered also upped interest rate to 5.375% from its previous 5.25%. Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the de facto central bank of the city, also announced an upwards 3.5% Base Rate adjustment. The three major U.S stock indexes slid by around 1.7% after the hike. Most Asian markets sank, with Japan’s Nikkei Index dropping 0.58%. “We have got to get inflation behind us,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “I wish there were a painless way to do that; there isn’t.” The several rounds of raised interest rates have led to the devaluation of at least one-tenth of the world's 36 currencies. “The Fed has raised interest rates sharply for many rounds, and the U.S. dollar has appreciated rapidly…” Zhao Lijian, the spokesman of the Chinese …

Share price of Hangzhou SF Intra-city company (9699.HK) slumped 5% to HK$ 7.03 today, after the company announced its net loss for 2021 expanded to 899 million yuan, as shown in the annual report released yesterday. The largest third-party on-demand delivery service provider in China saw a high open of HK$ 7.70 this morning , up 4.05% from the previous close, but the price went down afterwards to as low as HK$ 6.96. The company reported a net loss of 899 million yuan for the year 2021, versus 758 million yuan in 2020, it said in the result. The company achieved revenue of 8.174 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.77% and its gross profit and gross profit margin have recorded positive numbers for the first time, at 94.809 million yuan and 1.2% respectively, as of December 31, 2021. SF Intra-City was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 14 last year. However, it sank on the first day and closed at HK$14.9 per share on the same day, down 9.26% from the offering price, with a total market value of HK$13.91 billion. In the past five years, the instant delivery industry has ushered in a period of rapid growth, and the overall size of orders in the industry was 27.9 billion last year, said the report from iresearch.  SF Intra-City has become the largest third-party on-demand delivery service platform in China, with a steady market share of over 11%, capturing the emerging business opportunity of the instant delivery service according to its press release yesterday. Zeng Hailin, CFO of the company, said in today’s phone conference that he is confident that the company's gross profit margin will continue to improve and the expense ratio will further decline, and will strive to achieve breakeven as soon as …