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Markets

China’s young investors embrace risk. Why are their portfolios so safe?

Despite high risk tolerance, millennials and Gen Z invest in safer assets due to a combination of factors, a study shows Young Chinese investors may be just as willing to take risks as their global peers, but their portfolios remain more conservative against a backdrop of years of relative underperformance in China’s stock market, a prolonged property downturn and deflation, according to a senior researcher at the CFA Institute Research and Policy Centre. The disconnect between their willingness to take risks and their actual investment choices illustrated what the institute called an “aspiration-implementation gap”, said Rhodri Preece, senior head of research at the institute. “They want to retire early. They’re willing to take risks, but yet their portfolios [show] the most commonly cited investments are more conservative investments like wealth-management products and money-market funds,” Preece said in an interview on Thursday. The findings were based on the institute’s latest survey of 400 affluent investors in mainland China conducted in December, with its main analysis focusing on 300 Gen Z and millennial respondents.

September 11, 2026

Markets

Ant to let AI agents shop via 10 digital wallets, from AlipayHK to Starryblu to KakaoPay

With open-source release of Agentic Mobile Protocol and deals with credit-card giants, company bids for key role in global standards The company on Friday open-sourced its Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP) on GitHub, effectively putting it forward as a potential global technical standard for how AI agents securely pay for real-world goods. AMP was built onto Ant International’s existing Alipay+ cross-border network, which connects to 10 major Asian digital wallets serving 1.5 billion consumer accounts for an initial phase, according to the company. The protocol’s release would “enable agents to enter existing mobile payment systems as trusted actors”, allowing platforms like Alipay in mainland China, AlipayHK in Hong Kong, Starryblu in Singapore, and KakaoPay or Toss in South Korea to accelerate their AI strategies, said Yang Jiang-ming, Ant International’s chief innovation officer. Beyond Asia, Ant International on Thursday also announced a joint effort with credit card giants Visa and Mastercard on a so-called know-your-agent (KYA) framework, an effort to establish standardised identity verification for AI agents across card networks, digital wallets and online marketplaces globally, the company said.

September 11, 2026

Markets

Mainland Chinese investors to drive Hong Kong wealth boom despite new tax rules: report

The city will continue to serve as a vital platform linking mainland China with international capital, Hong Kong Association of Banks says Mainland China’s share of local assets under management was projected to reach 68 per cent from 59 per cent within five years, according to a report released by the Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB) and Deloitte China on Friday. Surveyed banks considered wealth management to be the biggest growth driver, said David Wu, Hong Kong financial services industry leader at Deloitte China. Banks that integrated portfolio construction, family governance, succession planning and digital asset custody would be best positioned to capitalise on this growth, HKAB and Deloitte said.

September 11, 2026

Markets

Hang Seng rolls out five wealth management strategies

New wealth centre moves services beyond transactional banking to integrated asset solutions [The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Hong Kong’s wealth landscape has evolved well beyond single-product investing, with more families now taking an integrated approach to planning that strengthens financial resilience, supports lifestyle continuity and enables long-term stewardship across generations. Hang Seng Bank is leaning into that shift by rolling out five wealth strategies: optimising the service network; shifting focus to family wealth planning; diversifying product offerings; expanding its talent pool; and better leveraging technology. The ambition is clear: to be Hong Kong’s most trusted wealth partner, building on its heritage as the leading local bank in the city to deliver professional advice and solutions that help families stay on track as markets and life plans evolve. Hong Kong’s wealth management market continues to build momentum.

September 11, 2026

Markets

US Treasury yield hits 19-year high, Japanese yen strengthens: the numbers moving markets

Hong Kong’s MPF assets reaching HK$1.67 trillion and European Central Bank increasing rates by 25 basis points are in spotlight this week China’s buoyant stock market lifted brokers’ earnings in the first half, while Hong Kong saw continued growth in retirement assets. Beyond China, a strengthening yen and Washington’s Treasury buy-back programme highlighted shifting dynamics in global currency and bond markets. Here are some of the figures that have drawn the most market attention this week. The broader industry also benefited from the market rally, with 150 brokerages reporting a 23.5 per cent average increase in net profit as operating revenue climbed 31 per cent, according to the Securities Association of China. The Financial Services Development Council has proposed allowing part of the fund to invest in alternative assets and infrastructure, while calling for Hong Kong to attract more long-term mainland capital to invest globally through the city.

September 11, 2026

Markets

Haidilao’s stock rout exposes funding risk from Beijing’s taxation crackdown as payments loom

Investors are eyeing whether tax-related share sales spread to other companies with founders’ wealth held through overseas structures The turmoil surrounding Chinese hotpot chain restaurant operator Haidilao International Holding could serve as a warning to investors of the funding risks stemming from Beijing’s new taxation regime on overseas assets held by wealthy individuals. A plan by Shu Ping, the co-founder and wife of Haidilao chairman Zhang Yong, to sell 259 million shares – a 4.65 per cent stake – sent the stock plunging 10 per cent in Hong Kong this week. While Haidilao said the stake reduction, which stands to generate about HK$2.75 billion (US$351 million) in proceeds for Shu, was intended for personal funding needs, investors promptly linked it to the implementation of a new income tax on offshore trusts. The regulatory framework requires the owners of such trusts – typically established in Hong Kong, Singapore or the Cayman Islands – to declare assets and remit tax payments before a 90-day grace period expires in October. The new tax could add to the financial pressure on offshore-trust owners, potentially prompting them to raise funds through stake sales before the payment deadline.

September 11, 2026

Markets

Yuen Kee Food enters final stage of Hong Kong IPO after HKEX approval, sources say

The dumpling chain is likely to list in October following three funding rounds Yuen Kee Food Group, the owner of well-known restaurant brand Yuen Kee Dumpling, has cleared its listing hearing with the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), aiming to raise between HK$300 million (US$38.3 million) and HK$400 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The conclusion of the hearing marked its initial public offering (IPO) plan entering its final stage, and the company planned to kick off the offering in October, the sources said, who asked not to be named because they did not have permission to speak publicly about the matter. Ahead of its IPO, Yuen Kee completed three funding rounds, bringing in BA Capital – a China-focused consumer sector investment firm which had previously backed Pop Mart and Heytea. Huatai International and GF Securities are serving as joint sponsors. The final amount fundraised would depend ⁠on the company’s valuation and investor demand, and the timing and size of the offering could still change, one source said. As of late May, Yuen Kee operated 4,773 outlets globally, covering more than 250 mainland Chinese cities, primarily through franchised stores.

September 11, 2026

Markets

Investment surge in Central Asia drives calls for expanded use of Chinese yuan

Use of the currency can cut risks and costs for infrastructure firms active in the mineral-rich region, according to speakers on an investment panel Expanding use of the Chinese yuan in fast-growing Central Asia, where China is a top investor, can reduce risks and costs for infrastructure firms, part of a broader trend that sees the currency gaining ground wherever commercial flows create demand for it, according to speakers on an investment panel in Hong Kong on Thursday. Smoother access to the yuan would lower risks inherent in currency exchanges, particularly when the more internationalised US dollar is trending strong, and bring down the costs of exporting equipment from China, speakers said during a discussion on yuan internationalisation at the Belt and Road Summit. “The internationalisation of the renminbi is particularly important to us because most of our equipment is manufactured in China and shipped over,” said Long Jisheng, chairman and CEO of the Shanghai-based waste management firm SUS Environment. In the infrastructure industry, where margins are razor-thin, exchange-rate fluctuations could wipe out profits entirely, he noted.

September 10, 2026

Markets

Hong Kong watchdog investigates Cloudbreak Pharma for ‘rigged’ IPO, suspends its shares

Regulator cites ‘serious concerns’ about ‘artificial impression of demand’ in US-based company’s US$78 million listing in 2025 “The SFC has serious concerns that Cloudbreak’s initial public offering may have been rigged to create an artificial impression of demand for Cloudbreak’s shares,” the SFC said in a statement on Thursday. The regulator considered the suspension “necessary or expedient to maintain an orderly and fair market” for the firm’s shares and to “protect the interests of the investing public”, it added. Cloudbreak, a biotechnology firm focused on treatments for people suffering from eye diseases, raised HK$611.88 million (US$78.45 million) in its IPO in late June 2025. The IPO’s retail portion was oversubscribed by 77 times, attracting 29,007 retail investors. Its international offering tranche, however, was not popular, with only 168 investors subscribing to an amount equal to 89 per cent of its offering, according to the company’s announcement at the time of the listing. The company’s share price dropped 39 per cent on the first day of trading, and has lost more than 90 per cent from its IPO price of HK$10.10, closing at HK$1.19 on Wednesday. The shares were suspended at 9am on Thursday, before the market opened.

September 10, 2026

Markets

DeepSeek says new Flash AI model beats Kimi K3 on cyber, coding benchmarks

Developer’s V4.1 Flash launch highlights China’s AI battle, where efficiency and speed drive competition amid chip curbs The Chinese artificial intelligence developer said on Thursday that V4.1 Flash used a new “Causal-Encoder-Decoder” architecture. While built on a massive 552 billion-parameter framework, it relies on a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) design. In traditional AI, every query runs through the entire system. An MoE system routes tasks only to the specific subnetworks best suited for the job. By activating just 8 billion parameters to process inputs and 16 billion to generate responses, DeepSeek said it significantly reduced the computing power needed per request. DeepSeek described V4.1 Flash as the smallest model in its new series, with native multimodal visual understanding. The model outperformed V4 Pro on benchmarks evaluating coding, cybersecurity and autonomous agent tasks, the company said. With rising hardware costs and foreign chip export curbs tightening compute constraints, Chinese players are racing to offer efficient models that deliver high-end reasoning at fraction-of-a-cent operational costs.

September 10, 2026

Markets

UBS pulls plug on fund sales on a wealth platform in China amid stiff competition

Change is part of ‘business integration plan’ aimed at ‘optimising’ the wealth-management business, Swiss bank says UBS plans to shut down its fund-distribution business on one of its mainland China wealth-management platforms, as it faces intense competition. As part of a “business integration plan”, UBS Fund Distribution (Shenzhen), known as UBSFS, would cease its fund sales business, including fund subscription and fund switching, at the end of September, the Swiss bank said in a statement to the South China Morning Post. UBS added that it remained “committed to China” and would “continue to invest strategically”, as the country was still a key market. The confirmation came after reports that WE.UBS, a wealth-management platform operated by the Shenzhen unit, was facing operational challenges and would be shut down. The move resulted from fierce competition in fund sales from rivals in mainland China, including those who were “originally built on online channels”, said two people familiar with the matter. UBS was giving up on the WE.UBS platform, and began the adjustment a few months ago, with redemption of funds to clients still taking place, one source said.

September 10, 2026

Markets

Mainland Chinese shoppers lose trusted Hong Kong veggie tag as customs revamp hits shelves

Change sparks concern among consumers, with the Hong Kong label having long served as a selling point for high quality The removal stems from new rules by the General Administration of Customs. From September 1, registration will no longer be required for growing farms, and only food-processing firms need to register. This means vegetables grown on the same farms that supply Hong Kong can no longer carry the Hong Kong-bound label when sold in mainland supermarkets. “Before, I just looked for the Hong Kong-bound label,” said a female consumer in a post this week on Chinese social media platform RedNote. “Now I must check the details myself, and that’s the change.” Hong Kong-bound labelled lettuce was once a bestseller at Walmart-owned Sam’s Club on the mainland, drawing middle-class shoppers who trusted its quality. Given its high popularity, the retailer added a tag on the product to explain the new customs rule. The 600-gram pack, still priced at 12.90 yuan (US$1.90), uses the same packaging and supplier from China’s northwestern Ningxia Hui autonomous region, distinguished only by the new “Dali lettuce” label.

September 10, 2026