NASDAQ of the East: Hong Kong Stock Exchange launches tech giant index

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has launched a new index composed of 30 of its largest listed tech firms in a move to offer a Chinese-dominated competitor to New York’s NASDAQ index. The Hang Seng TECH Index, which went live on Monday, includes Chinese technology giants such as mobile game developer Tencent, e-commerce group JD.com and online shopping titan Alibaba. Other constituents of the index are phonemaker Xiaomi and food delivery services website Meituan-Dianping. Meanwhile, Ant Financial Group, owned by Alibaba’s billionaire founder Jack Ma, is also likely to join the index after it chose to list on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges as part of its initial public offering. The company was valued at around £117bn in 2018, meaning its IPO is likely to attract considerable investor interest. The announcement of the new index is seen as a move to attract investors to Chinese tech stocks and provide an alternative to the standard Hang Seng Index, which is dominated largely by Hong Kong’s banks, property firms and energy conglomerates. It may also allow for the creation of new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to track the Chinese tech sector specifically and potentially draw more foreign capital into the Chinese market.