Innovent, first Chinese biotech firm to market weight-loss drug, joins Hang Seng Index

Innovent Biologics will join the Hang Seng Index next month in the latest quarterly review as the compiler of the city’s stock benchmark presses ahead with its plan to increase the number of constituents to 100.\nThe biotech firm, based in eastern Jiangsu province, has become the only new constituent of the blue-chip indicator, one month after it signed an US$11.4 billion outsourcing deal with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals to co-develop and commercialise three specific investigational cancer medicines from its pipeline.\nThe stock would be added after the market closed on December 5, increasing the tally of index members to 89, the Hang Seng Index said in a statement on Friday. There would be no deletions, it added.\nAs part of the rebalancing of the Hang Seng family of indices, Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology would be added to the Hang Seng Tech Index, while Innovent, together with aluminium producer China Hongqiao Group and restaurant chain operator Yum China Holdings, would join the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese mainland companies trading in Hong Kong, according to the statement.\n\nInvestors are expected to closely monitor the changes in the composition of the Hang Seng indices as Hong Kong stocks regain favour amid easing US-China tariff tensions and expectations of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.\nThe Hang Seng Index has risen nearly 30 per cent this year, ranking among the best-performing major stock gauges globally, amid China’s advances in artificial intelligence and its improving relations with Washington.\nIndex reshuffles typically boost the stock prices of newcomers, which investors chase due to either their growing prominence or the need to recalibrate passively managed equity portfolios.\nH shares of Innovent, the first Chinese firm to win approval to market a weight-loss drug in the country, have climbed 138.4 per cent this year to close at HK$87.25 on Friday. It posted a net profit of 834 million yuan (US$117.3 million) in the first half, reversing a loss of 392.6 million yuan in the same period last year.\nLeapmotor, one of the fast-growing EV assemblers in terms of sales in 2025, has soared 45 per cent to HK$47.24 so far this year, while China Hongqiao has surged 175 per cent to HK$29.52 and Yum China has edged up 0.4 per cent to HK$370.\nIn the last review in August, toymaker Pop Mart International Group, JD Logistics and China Telecom were added to the Hang Seng Index.\nLaunched in November 1969, the Hang Seng Index is capitalised at HK$32 trillion (US$4.1 trillion). It covers 66 per cent of the value of Hong Kong’s stock market and accounts for more than half of the total turnover, according to the gauge’s fact sheet.\nAlibaba Group Holding is the most valuable constituent with a 9.65 per cent weighting, followed by HSBC Holdings at 8.53 per cent and Tencent Holdings at 8.25 per cent. Alibaba owns the Post.\nASMPT, a Singaporean maker of machines and tools used in semiconductor and electronics assembly, will be removed from the Hang Seng Tech Index.\nENN Energy Holdings, hotpot chain Haidilao International and New Oriental Education & Technology Group will be deleted from the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index.\n