On October 8 in the Hong Kong stock market, southbound trading recorded a net buy of HK$6.477 billion, according to data. Of that total, the Shanghai Stock Connect southbound leg saw a net buy of HK$3.836 billion, while the Shenzhen Stock Connect southbound leg posted a net buy of HK$2.641 billion.

The stocks with the largest southbound net buying were Tencent Holdings Ltd (00700), AIA Group Ltd (01299), and Xiaomi Corp-W (01810). The stocks with the largest southbound net selling were GenScript Biotech Corp (01548), Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Ltd (06869), and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (00981).

Tencent Holdings Ltd (00700) fell more than 2% on the day while attracting a full-day net buy of HK$2.452 billion. On October 8, reports said Tencent Holdings is considering issuing offshore bonds with a maximum size of US$5 billion. The batch is planned to be denominated in both U.S. dollars and offshore renminbi, with the earliest launch potentially this month. In addition, recent reports said Tencent leased Oracle's Southeast Asia data center, involving about 100,000 advanced AI chips, in a transaction valued at about US$7 billion.

AIA Group Ltd (01299) received a net buy of HK$1.318 billion. Bank of America Securities said in a research note that AIA fell sharply by 5% on the first day of China's Golden Week holiday, while the Hang Seng Index fell 3% over the same period. The bank noted that similar high volatility has been seen on the first day of Golden Week over the past six years, and the first-day performance does not predict the full-month trend for October. It attributed the sharp drop mainly to thin trading and the absence of southbound inflows rather than fundamental issues. It reiterated a "Buy" rating with a target price of HK$95.

CIG Shanghai Co Ltd (06166) received a net buy of HK$240 million. Kingboard Laminates Holdings Ltd (01888) and Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Ltd (06869) were net sold HK$235 million and HK$428 million, respectively. Founder Securities pointed out that continued expansion of cloud vendors' capital expenditure is an important support for this round of AI hardware gains, but the rise in investment scale and stock price gains are not always synchronized. Whether the market expectation that the growth rate of cloud capital expenditure is peaking this round holds true may offer significant guidance for the sustainability of future AI hardware stock performance. In addition, CIG Shanghai announced a share placement and proposed issuance of convertible bonds, with expected net proceeds of about RMB6.535 billion.

CNOOC Ltd (00883) received a net buy of HK$183 million. According to the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook report released by the EIA, the forecast for the global benchmark Brent crude oil average price in 2026 was raised to about US$98 per barrel, 8% higher than the previous forecast. At the same time, the average Brent price forecast for the fourth quarter was about US$105 per barrel, 15% higher than the EIA's previous estimate.

Insilico Medicine Inc (03696) received a net buy of HK$179 million. Insilico Medicine recently announced that, driven by its proprietary generative AI platform, the company nominated ISM1354 as a preclinical candidate compound (PCC) with potential use in interventions for obesity, type 2 diabetes and related diseases, and with potential expansion into the cardiovascular disease field. As of now, Insilico Medicine has announced the nomination of 10 PCCs in the first nine months of 2026, setting a record for the company's annual pipeline output.

Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (01347) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (00981) were net sold HK$351 million and HK$405 million, respectively. On October 8, TSMC's latest revenue report showed that TSMC's September revenue was NT$511.86 billion, down 0.6% month-on-month and up 54.6% year-on-year. TSMC's revenue for the first three quarters of 2026 was NT$3,898.73 billion, up 41.1% year-on-year. In addition, Xiaomi Corp-W (01810) and MINIMAX-W (00100) received net buys of HK$436 million and HK$168 million, respectively, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-W (09988) and GenScript Biotech Corp (01548) were net sold HK$145 million and HK$585 million, respectively.