Alibaba Up 5%, Nio Surges 12%: Hang Seng Jumps As China Dials Down Zero-COVID Controls

Hong Kong stocks soared on Monday morning, with the benchmark Hang Seng index rising over 3%, as China relieved some of its COVID-19 restrictions, easing testing rules in some cities.

Stocks of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd rose over 5%. EV stocks soared with Xpeng shares rising over 19% in morning trade while Li Auto gained over 10%. Nio rose over 12%.

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Macro News: More Chinese cities including Urumqi eased coronavirus restrictions on Sunday as China tries to make its zero-COVID policy more targeted, reported Reuters.

China’s offshore yuan rose past the key level of 7-per-dollar level for the first time since September, as authorities start focussing on reopening the economy, reported Bloomberg.

Company News: China Evergrande Group’s (OTC: EGRNF) electric vehicle unit has suspended mass production of its only model owing to a lack of new orders, reported Reuters citing sources.

Volkswagen Group (OTC: VWAGY) is facing complaints in China owing to on-board system failures in ID series EVs, reported CnEVPost.

Top Gainers and Losers: Alibaba Health Information Technology Limited and Xiaomi Corporation are the top gainers among Hang Seng constituents, having risen over 17% and 7%, respectively. Lenovo Group Limited and China Resources Land Limited were the top losers, having shed 1.11% and 0.6%, respectively.

Global News: U.S. futures traded in the red on Friday morning Asia session. The Dow Jones futures declined 0.05% while the Nasdaq futures lost 0.13%. The S&P 500 futures were trading lower by 0.12%.

Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, Australia’s ASX 200 was up 0.61%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.02% higher while China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 1.48%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.45%.

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