UBS noted that while the number of Hong Kong IPOs since the beginning of the year has been small and the performance has been relatively negative, investors including sovereign funds or long-term funds told the bank they felt positive about IPO-related projects. UBS regarded these reactions as one of the signals that Hong Kong's IPO market is turning positive, hoping that with the rebound of Hong Kong's stock market, the financing market will slowly turn better in 2H24.

After the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) stated its support for the listing of industry-leading Chinese companies in Hong Kong, UBS said that many companies are interested in listing in the city. The bank expected that there would be large-scale IPOs in Hong Kong in the near future, which is believed to help boost the atmosphere of Hong Kong's secondary market. However, it is still dependent on the progress of the CSRC's vetting and approval process.

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Separately, BABA-SW (09988.HK)  +3.300 (+3.131%)    Short selling $2.67B; Ratio 21.728%   and JD-SW (09618.HK)  +0.800 (+0.578%)    Short selling $163.00M; Ratio 11.039%   announced the issuance of convertible bonds (CBs) after announcing their annual or quarterly results, with the intention to use the proceeds to buy back shares. UBS said it's not surprised to see companies issuing CBs this year. After JD announced the CB issuance, its share price only dropped about 1-2%, which is a stable performance. UBS even considered that issuing CBs for share repurchases is good news for the market.
(HK stocks quote is delayed for at least 15 mins.Short Selling Data as at 2025-04-17 16:25.)