--- title: "Zhitong Hong Kong Stock Analysis | Global Food Price Inflation Resurfaces, UNITREE Technology's Listing Robot Creates Momentum" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/296231679.md" description: "Trump's approval rating has dropped to a new low of 33%, with the Iran issue becoming the focus. The negotiation window between the U.S. and Iran has expired, and the U.S. has refused to extend it. Geopolitical tensions are driving shipping logic, leading to gains in Hong Kong stocks such as TS LINES. U.S. chip stocks are rising against the trend, but the issuance of U.S. investment-grade bonds has reached a record high. Japan, China, and the UK have reduced their holdings of U.S. Treasuries, raising concerns as global government bond yields soar" datetime: "2026-08-18T12:57:59.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/296231679.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296231679.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/296231679.md) --- # Zhitong Hong Kong Stock Analysis | Global Food Price Inflation Resurfaces, UNITREE Technology's Listing Robot Creates Momentum **【Anatomy of the Market】** The external environment remains unstable, and it's time to test resilience. Fortunately, both markets have withstood the pressure, with Hong Kong stocks slightly up by 0.07% today. On August 17, the 60-day negotiation window set by the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding expired. When asked whether the U.S. intends to extend the memorandum with Iran, Trump gave a negative response. With the midterm elections approaching, Trump's latest poll shows his approval rating has dropped to 33%, a new low for his second term. The Iran issue has become a hot potato; with no other options available, Trump can only continue to be tough: there is no rush to end the war with Iran, and if Oman obstructs negotiations, there will be "heavy bombing." Iran maintains a hardline stance, warning of a shift to full-scale attacks. Iran continues to strengthen its control over the Strait of Hormuz, with a fuel transport ship repeatedly turning back and then stopping. The logic of shipping continues to strengthen, with TS LINES (02510) rising over 5%; Orient Overseas International (00316) and Seaspan Corporation (01308) rising over 2%. Although U.S. stocks in the memory chip and optical communication sectors continue to rise against the trend, with SanDisk up nearly 9%, Coherent up nearly 8%, and Lumentum up 4.6%, the chip index rebounded by 1.6%, appearing to return to a bull market, domestic markets are not following suit due to the pessimistic outlook ahead. The apparent prosperity is built on a foundation of debt, with AI infrastructure spurring a record wave of bond issuance. U.S. investment-grade bonds have set a new historical record this year, with the issuance scale reaching USD 145.2 billion as of August 17, the highest for the same month in history; additionally, there have been six months this year where the bond issuance scale was the highest or second highest for the same month in history. There are even bigger issues, as the U.S. Treasury: In June, Japan and China led overseas sales of U.S. Treasury bonds, with the three major "creditors"—China, Japan, and the UK—reducing their holdings, and China's bond holdings hitting a new low since 2008. With U.S., Japanese, British, and German bonds recently plummeting, yields have soared to their highest levels in years, raising widespread concerns. Robin J Brooks, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, stated in a recent report that there is no intuitive way to predict when a country will experience a debt crisis; however, as shown in the past week, market pressures are clearly building sharply. The food crisis has resurfaced, with Morgan Stanley recently releasing a report predicting that the global food price inflation rate will rise from 2.8% in the first half of this year to 5% in the first half of next year. The reason is that the conflict in the Middle East has obstructed passage through the Strait of Hormuz, coupled with the strong El Niño potentially causing crop reductions. Multiple factors will impact agricultural production, leading to high food prices in the first half of 2027. The report predicts that the food price inflation rate will reach 5% in the first half of 2027, pushing the overall inflation rate up by 0.6 percentage points. October Rice Field (09676) surged over 14%; Modern Dairy (01117) rose 6.69%, closing at HKD 1.515; YouRan Dairy (09858) rose over 5%, and DeKang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (02419) rose over 3%. UNITREE Technology will be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Sci-Tech Innovation Board on August 19. The related robotics concept continues to gain momentum, with some varieties already gaining traction yesterday, and today a new batch has emerged. Star Legend (06683), which has a partnership with UNITREE, saw a rapid increase in funding towards the end of the trading session, with speculation surrounding the joint venture "Yuxing Entertainment," in which both parties hold 50% equity Developing consumer-grade IP robots is expected to fully utilize the IP "Zhou Tongxue" to achieve a win-win situation. However, if consumer-grade robots do not solve the brain problem well, they are not much different from ordinary toys, and this will take at least a few years. Today, it surged nearly 35%. Other robotics concept stocks are also moving, with Estun (02715) rising over 8%, Sanhua Intelligent Control (02050) of T Chain rising over 5%, and Laifu Harmonic (03952) of harmonic reducers rising over 2%. According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, excavator sales in July 2026 are expected to reach 19,521 units, a year-on-year increase of 13.9%; among them, exports are 11,913 units, a year-on-year increase of 21.2%, with exports accounting for about 61%, setting a historical high; loader sales are 11,774 units, a year-on-year increase of 30.8%. The high growth rate of loaders directly benefits China Longgong (03339): the company's core strength is loaders, with a market share firmly in the first tier, and the competitive landscape for overseas loaders is much friendlier than that for excavators. The company has laid out its overseas channels early, with a relatively complete presence in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America; loaders are highly standardized products, making them easier to go overseas. As one of the top stocks in August by Zhitong, it surged over 11% today. Sany International (00631): The first batch of SKT110Ei pure electric unmanned mining trucks was shipped to South America yesterday, marking the first implementation of China's unmanned driving technology in the Latin American mining market, with rapid growth in overseas sales revenue in the first quarter. Today it rose over 9%. Genscript (01548) once again leads the innovative drug sector, with a core highlight being its AIDD business doubling year-on-year, and orders for AI pharmaceutical companies exploding; the gene-protein integration platform is ramping up. Today it rose over 8%; WuXi AppTec's system once again leads CXO, with WuXi Biologics (02269): The company's BCM3 facility in Singapore has successfully achieved GMP release, marking a new phase in its global capacity expansion. Today it rose over 7%; WuXi Biologics (02269) was selected for the global sustainable biopharmaceutical leading enterprises best practices list, which includes global leading pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Takeda, GlaxoSmithKline, and Bayer, indicating its significant weight, rising over 5%. Kanglong Chemical (03759) will officially announce its performance on August 21, with a previous forecast of a net profit growth of 4%-10% year-on-year for the first half of the year, today it rose nearly 6%. Kelaiying (06821) will also announce its performance on August 25, rising 5% today. Internet giants seem very lonely in this AI wave, only able to struggle to catch up from behind. Alibaba (09988) is doing subtraction, shifting from crazy acquisitions to contraction. Recently, Lingxi Interactive Entertainment CEO Zhou Bingshu announced in an internal letter that Alibaba will sell its shares in Lingxi Interactive Entertainment, with Xincheng Capital becoming the new shareholder. According to industry insiders, the transaction price exceeds $1.5 billion, equivalent to over 10 billion yuan. AI is too costly; as early as the beginning of last year, Alibaba CEO Eric Wu announced that Alibaba would invest over 380 billion yuan in the next three years, and this fund recovery is to reserve "ammunition" for AI. Today it rose 3.68%. On the other hand, on August 18, Tencent Holdings (00700) announced that Tencent Cloud will open a service in Johor, Malaysia, with plans to establish three available zones in the first phase, marking Tencent Cloud's first service opening in Malaysia After the launch, Johor will become an important node for Tencent Cloud in Southeast Asia, allowing local enterprises to deploy AI-related businesses nearby to meet the rapidly growing demand for AI intelligent applications in the region. Tencent Cloud's Data Lake Computing (DLC) has set two world records in TPC-DS 100TB performance and cost-effectiveness, achieving a comprehensive performance score of 654 million, nearly ten times the previous record; the unit performance cost has dropped to 11.04 yuan, only about one-sixth of the previous cost. The competition among giants continues. **【Sector Focus】** According to media reports, China is accelerating the reduction of its dependence on American technology and has requested some state-owned enterprises to uninstall the customized version of Windows 10 from Microsoft. This move advances the planned retirement date of this operating system by several months, reflecting China's growing concerns about the use of foreign software in sensitive government systems. This version of Windows 10 was developed by China Information Technology (CMIT) and is a joint venture between Microsoft and the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, established in 2016, with the intention of modifying Windows to meet China's cybersecurity and national security requirements. CMIT originally planned to stop supporting the software in February 2027, but the new directive has moved this timeline forward. This news has not been confirmed, but from a security perspective, it is only a matter of time. **Positive for domestic software alternatives:** Kingsoft (03888), China Software International (00354). **【Stock Picks】** **Nexteer Automotive (01316): Thailand factory successfully produces the 20,000th CEPS, subsequent order catalysts are worth looking forward to** On July 31, Nexteer's Thailand factory reached a key production milestone, with factory employees gathering on-site to witness the successful production of the 20,000th Column Electric Power Steering System (CEPS). From production to mass production, the factory completed the offline production of 20,000 CEPS products in just three months, validating the base's efficient production and delivery capabilities and mature quality control system. **Comment:** Currently, the electrification and intelligent transformation of the automotive industry in Southeast Asia is accelerating, and market demand continues to be released. The successful offline production at the Thailand factory signifies that the company's expansion in Southeast Asia has achieved phased results. This will accelerate the globalization process. The company achieved revenue of USD 2.242 billion in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 3.9%; net profit attributable to the parent company was USD 86 million, a year-on-year increase of 35.2%. Free cash flow reached USD 109 million, significantly up from USD 37 million in the same period last year. The company has formed a complete product matrix of steer-by-wire, rear-wheel steering, EMB, and MotionIQ software suite. As the industry's intelligence and advanced autonomous driving accelerate, high-value-added steer-by-wire chassis products are entering a growth cycle, and it is expected that steer-by-wire will gradually ramp up in 2026E. Future highlights: In the first half of 2026, two new steer-by-wire projects are expected to enter mass production, such as the models supported by the company like ZEEKR 9x, which are in the ramp-up phase. One L4 Robotaxi steer-by-wire project in North America has already entered mass production (two customers are in the development stage), and four projects have been designated but have not yet entered mass production (one customer is in the development stage), while one steer-by-wire project in Europe has been designated but has not yet entered mass production. 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