US equities' three major indices rose 0.5% to 1% last Friday (31 Jul), driven by a more than 15% post-results surge in Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) . The HSI opened up 102 pts before briefly turning lower. At midday, the index closed at 25,895, up 11 pts or 0.04%, with turnover at HKD142.699 billion. The HSTECH closed the half-day at 4,864, up 35 pts or 0.74%, while the HSCEI stood at 8,622, up 10 pts or 0.13%.

Among active leading tech stocks, BABA-W (09988.HK) +7.900 (+6.752%) Short selling $2.23B; Ratio 15.189% climbed 6.75% after launching its Qwen 3.8-Max artificial intelligence model, with performance comparable to Anthropic Fable. BIDU-SW (09888.HK) +4.100 (+3.872%) Short selling $67.08M; Ratio 15.848% rose 3.87%. TENCENT (00700.HK) +14.200 (+2.988%) Short selling $780.20M; Ratio 7.272% and KUAISHOU-W (01024.HK) +1.300 (+2.975%) Short selling $47.13M; Ratio 4.061% gained nearly 3%. JD-SW (09618.HK) +2.300 (+1.810%) Short selling $97.00M; Ratio 18.133% and MEITUAN-W (03690.HK) +1.100 (+1.189%) Short selling $191.97M; Ratio 11.429% advanced more than 1%. XIAOMI-W (01810.HK) -1.060 (-3.683%) Short selling $1.54B; Ratio 29.764% fell 3.68% by midday after announcing price increases of up to RMB500 for its premium smartphone models. UBS lowered its TP on the company, citing persistently high memory costs and weak end-market demand.

Among blue chips, XINYI SOLAR (00968.HK) +0.205 (+9.318%) Short selling $47.82M; Ratio 20.223% was upgraded to Buy by Citi after its results announcement, with shares rising 9.32%, making it the best-performing blue chip at midday. XINYI GLASS (00868.HK) +0.220 (+2.361%) Short selling $43.34M; Ratio 37.302% gained 2.36% after reporting a 17% increase in interim profit. NEW ORIENTAL-S (09901.HK) +1.840 (+4.064%) Short selling $48.73M; Ratio 23.341% rose 4.06%. HSBC HOLDINGS (00005.HK) -1.600 (-0.951%) Short selling $84.23M; Ratio 9.081% , which will announce results tomorrow, slipped 0.95%. SMIC (00981.HK) -0.950 (-1.502%) Short selling $116.35M; Ratio 3.705% fell 1.5%. CHINAHONGQIAO (01378.HK) -1.600 (-6.520%) Short selling $112.53M; Ratio 12.552% slumped 6.52%, making it the worst-performing blue chip at midday. Macau's Jul GGR declined for a second consecutive month, sending SANDS CHINA LTD (01928.HK) -0.330 (-2.242%) Short selling $10.57M; Ratio 14.590% and GALAXY ENT (00027.HK) -0.700 (-2.047%) Short selling $57.36M; Ratio 29.328% down more than 2%.

Among AI-related stocks, MINIMAX-W (00100.HK) +18.600 (+8.066%) Short selling $94.05M; Ratio 10.052% rose 8.07% after Citi praised the significant cost advantage of its H3 video model. Z.AI (02513.HK) -78.000 (-7.899%) Short selling $358.48M; Ratio 9.811% dropped 7.9%. XUNCE (03317.HK) +14.800 (+14.300%) Short selling $3.12M; Ratio 0.535% surged 14.3% after forecasting an interim turnaround to a profit of RMB72.51 million.

South Korea's KOSPI index dropped more than 5%, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both falling about 8%. This weighed on Hong Kong-listed leveraged products, with XL2CSOPHYNIX (07709.HK) -6.100 (-14.346%) Short selling $624.18M; Ratio 15.613% tumbling 14.35% and XL2CSOPSMSN (07747.HK) -9.500 (-12.264%) Short selling $127.97M; Ratio 26.833% declining 12.26%.

Among individual stocks, ANGELALIGN (06699.HK) +14.900 (+18.648%) Short selling $70.14M; Ratio 31.070% jumped 18.65% after forecasting nearly 80% growth in interim profit. JNCEC (00579.HK) -0.175 (-9.067%) Short selling $12.37M; Ratio 21.273% projected a YoY decline of up to 35% in interim net profit, with its share price falling more than 9%. (mn/a)(HK stocks quote is delayed for at least 15 mins.Short Selling Data as at 2026-08-03 12:25.) (Real-time Streaming US Stocks Quote; Except All OTC quotes are at least 15 minutes delayed.)