Hang Seng Bank welcomes HK budget initiatives

Meanwhile, HSBC’s CIO expects AI to benefit from the announced plans.

Hang Seng Bank has welcomed the recently announced budget initiatives for 2025-26, saying that they will “fuel further economic growth for Hong Kong.

The initiatives announced today include cross-boundary financial cooperation, asset and wealth management and offshore renminbi business.

"These measures will create more opportunities for the development of financial technology which aligns with Hang Seng Bank's commitment and endeavors, " said Diana Cesar, executive director and chief executive of Hang Seng Bank.

In a separate statement, HSBC’s chief investment officer for North Asia under its Global Private Banking and Wealth arm said that outlined plans related to innovation, talents, and financial markets should attract investors’ attention.

The artificial intelligence (AI) space in particular is expected to benefit from the Hong Kong government’s plans.

“With the recent capital market’s focus on Artificial intelligence (AI), we think it is a good time to step up our efforts to develop AI and related industries in Hong Kong,” said Patrick Ho, Chief Investment Officer, North Asia, Global Private Banking and Wealth, HSBC.

“In the Hong Kong stock market, we favour AI enablers and adopters, including Chinese industry leaders in the internet, ecommerce, software, smartphones, semiconductor, autonomous driving, and humanoid robotics space,” he added.

For Hong Kong domestic companies, Ho sees opportunities amongst undervalued high dividend stocks in the insurance, telecom, and utilities sectors. These are expected to perform well in the global rate-cutting cycle, he said.