Hong Kong’s stock market could face selling pressure amid a flood of new supply of shares in the coming days as the six-month lock-up period for hot artificial intelligence and semiconductor picks including Zhipu AI and MiniMax expires.
At the same time, analysts warned of growing fears of a cash drain, with many of the same companies eyeing large secondary equity offerings.
Stefan Tam, associate director at Fulbright Financial, said the market was facing dual selling pressure.
“These stocks have generally seen significant gains, and it is believed that investors may be looking to take some profits, which could limit their upward momentum,” he said. “At the same time, large-scale offerings could intensify selling pressures.”
The lockup periods for AI model developers Zhipu, known as Z.ai globally and trading as Knowledge Atlas Technology, and MiniMax expire on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, with 25.68 million and 150 million shares becoming tradable, out of a total of 446 million and 314 million issued shares, respectively.
Zhipu stock rose 5 percent on Tuesday morning after falling 14.6 percent on Monday, while MiniMax stock lost 2.3 percent on Tuesday morning after falling 3.3 percent on Monday. Based on midday prices on Tuesday, the combined market capitalization of the shares subject to the expiration of the lock-up period is HK$90 billion (US$11.5 billion).
