(Bloomberg) — Chinese stocks climbed on Wednesday, with technology names driving the gain after Beijing vowed more support for the sector and set an ambitious economic growth target as the nation’s most important annual political gathering got underway.
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The MSCI China Index rose as much as 2.7% and was headed for its best gain in a week. It had declined on the first trading day of the National People’s Congress for each of the past five years. A gauge of shares listed in Hong Kong climbed 3.1%, with a measure of tech stocks up 4%.
The strong showing came as Chinese leaders kicked off the NPC by maintaining a growth goal of about 5%, a target seen harder to achieve this year given rising trade tensions with the US and unabated geopolitical uncertainties. Beijing’s resolve to stick to the aim spurred bets that there’s more stimulus to come, with sentiment boosted further by a fresh pledge to bolster technologies from artificial intelligence to quantum computing.
“There’s nothing to nitpick. Just a robust growth target, and a clear intention to support the economy,” said Vey-Sern Ling, managing director at Union Bancaire Privee. “This should be reassuring to markets.”
In his opening address to the NPC, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said the nation will advance development of strategic emerging industries and carry out initiatives on the large-scale application of new technologies. “We will establish a mechanism to increase funding for industries of the future and foster industries such as biomanufacturing, quantum technology, embodied AI, and 6G technology,” Li said.
Chinese chip, quantum computing and robotics shares rallied, with chipmaker Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd. gaining 7.4% in Hong Kong and robotics-related Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic Co. finishing up 5.7% in Shanghai. That helped Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks extend their 2025 outperformance against mainland peers. The CSI 300 Index, a benchmark of onshore shares, ended the day just 0.5% higher.
“The NPC report showed better-than-expected government support for the China technology sector while general economic targets are in line with expectations,” said Gary Tan, a portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments. “This helped the HK markets which have higher exposure to technology names than onshore markets.”
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