Alibaba is No 1 for China traders ploughing HK$13.5 billion in stock

[SHANGHAI] Renewed optimism over Alibaba Group Holding’s potential in artificial intelligence has turned the stock into Chinese investors’ favourite investment.

They bought a combined HK$13.5 billion (S$2.2 billion) worth of Alibaba shares last week via the trading links between the mainland and Hong Kong, spending more than for any other stock, according to Bloomberg calculations based on exchange data. The weekly net purchases were higher than the totals in recent months and would be the highest monthly since April.

Sentiment over Alibaba has improved since the e-commerce company delivered a surge in AI-related revenue for the quarter ended in June, offsetting concerns over its massive investments in food delivery.

With an 18 per cent surge this month, the stock has become the best performer on the Hang Seng Tech Index. It jumped as much as 4.7 per cent in Hong Kong Monday after the tech giant released an upgrade of its open-sourced AI model and co-led a funding round in a robotics startup.

Wall Street analysts have turned more bullish on the stock too, with at least 20 of them upgrading their price target since the earnings report, data compiled by Bloomberg show. They see the stock rising 17 per cent in the coming year from the Friday (Sep 5) close to HK$160.18, according to the average projection. BLOOMBERG