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China has emerged as the brightest spot in Apple's quarterly earnings, as the US tech giant achieved record iPhone revenue in the world's largest smartphone market. Revenue in Apple's Greater China region, which comprises mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, surged 38 per cent from a year earlier in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended December 27, the Cupertino-based company said on Friday. That growth, more than double the company's overall 16 per cent quarterly revenue increase,......

HSBC, Hong Kong's biggest bank with a customer base of 6.2 million, saw a system breakdown on Friday afternoon. The bank's mobile banking app could not be accessed, instead showing a message stating the system was under maintenance and would be available at a later time. A staff member at the bank's Mong Kok branch said HSBC's computer network across the city had failed, but did not know the reason for the stoppage. An official with the bank also confirmed there had been a breakdown, but the......

China suspended trading of five commodity funds on Friday to curb investment mania in gold, silver and oil and reduce underlying risks amid geopolitical tensions. The only public fund investing in silver futures in mainland China, UBS SDIC Silver Futures Fund, a listed open-ended fund (LOF), will be suspended for the whole day on Friday, the second such halt since January 22. The trading halt also spread to oil LOFs, four of which were halted for an hour up to 10.30am on Friday. Before the......

Tesla's falling car deliveries and declining profitability on the mainland have not stopped its Chinese electric-car rivals from imitating the US firm's transition into an artificial intelligence entity. Xpeng, Li Auto and Nio, dubbed as Tesla challengers over the past decade, have taken similar steps to diversify into emerging technologies and position themselves for the future of transport. These Chinese firms are now building next-generation vehicles, flying cars, robots and chips to create......

The UK and mainland China are considering a new cross-border asset-management link and upgrades to their existing stock connect scheme, as both sides seek closer capital-market cooperation, according to Ashley Alder, chairman of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). “We are looking at enhancing market connectivity between China and the UK, particularly by building on the stock connect with Shanghai and Shenzhen,” Alder said. “In addition, we are exploring other areas of cooperation, such......

Hong Kong stocks retreated on Friday, ending a seven-day rally, as investors locked in profits on the final trading day of January after a sharp month-long surge. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.7 per cent to 27,785.98 at the open, pulling back from a multi-year high. The benchmark has climbed nearly 8.4 per cent this month, its strongest monthly performance since February 2025. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 0.9 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index declined 0.9 per cent and the Shanghai......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Hong Kong's construction sector is at a watershed moment, industry leaders say, as AI and robotics begin to deliver measurable gains in productivity and site safety, a view shared at the Construction Industry Council's Master Talk on harnessing AI for the sector. The Master Talk, held on January 22, brought together public clients, developers, contractors, consultants and tech firms to examine how AI and robotics are......

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] A month into 2026, banks are publishing market outlooks that impose structure on an uncertain year. Standard Chartered's report favours equities, continues to back AI, looks to emerging market bonds for income and retains gold as a defensive allocation. The preference for equities, particularly in the US and Asia excluding Japan, are backed by expectations of AI-led earnings growth. According to the bank's 2026 Global......

New World Development (NWD), the embattled Hong Kong property developer, said late on Thursday that its parent, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), has been approached by potential investors after reports that CTFE may sell part of its stake to Blackstone. Bloomberg reported early that Blackstone – the world's biggest asset manager – was in discussion to become the single largest shareholder of NWD, citing people familiar with the matter. Under the proposed arrangement, the US alternative asset......

Morgan Stanley expects China's humanoid robot sales to grow 133 per cent to 28,000 units this year, while noting that falling production costs will gradually make owning robots more accessible. The US investment bank revised its forecast from the 14,000 units previously on the back of the rapid growth of the industry in the world's second largest economy. The cost of materials to produce robots in China, home to most of the industry's supply chain, was set to drop 16 per cent this year, the bank......

British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Thursday it plans to invest US$15 billion in China through 2030, signalling renewed momentum in UK-China commercial ties. The investment – the biggest deal announced so far during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's trip to Beijing aimed at strengthening trade ties – will support expanded medicines manufacturing as well as research and development (R&D), the company said in a statement. “Unlocking opportunities for British businesses across......

China's artificial intelligence hyperscalers have quickly added cloud support for Moltbot, formerly known as Clawdbot, an open-source AI agent that has exploded in popularity globally. Billed as the “AI that actually does things”, Moltbot's ability to autonomously execute tasks without the user directing each action has caused waves in the global developer community, briefly lifting shares of US web infrastructure giant Cloudflare in pre-market trading on Tuesday before they later......

Chinese liquor stocks jumped on Thursday ahead of Lunar New Year, with retailers reportedly building inventories of spirits typically consumed at family reunions and corporate banquets. Shares of Kweichow Moutai – China's best-known baijiu maker and the most valuable stock on the mainland market – climbed more than 9 per cent in afternoon trading to 1,445 yuan, their highest level in over a month. The stock closed the session 8.6 per cent higher at 1,437.72 yuan. Smaller peers also rallied, with......

With economic and geopolitical instability showing little sign of retreat in 2026, momentum from last year's strong gold demand was likely to persist this year, the London-based World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday. Gold investment demand across sectors was expected to remain firm, underpinned by anticipated US Federal Reserve rate cuts, the prospect of a weaker US dollar and the reduced appeal of bonds as risk premiums rise, the WGC said in its outlook. “The continued rally in spot gold......

Alibaba Group Holding's semiconductor design arm, T-Head, on Thursday unveiled details of its advanced artificial intelligence chip with capabilities said to be on par with Nvidia's H20, days after the unit was reportedly being prepared for a potential spin-off and public listing. According to information on T-Head's website, the Zhenwu 810E was a “fully self-developed” parallel processing unit (PPU), an application-specific integrated circuit designed for both AI training and inference. Alibaba......

Hong Kong's financial war chest increased its earnings by 51 per cent to a record last year, fuelled by a rally in local and global stocks as well as bonds. The Exchange Fund's investment income surged to HK$331 billion (US$42 billion), the most since its creation in 1993, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Wednesday. Hong Kong's de facto central bank uses the fund's holdings to help defend the city's currency peg to the US dollar. All of the fund's main investment categories were......

The Taiwan government has cleared Nvidia to establish a NT$3.3 billion (US$105 million) headquarters on the island that produces most of the world's advanced semiconductors, which the Silicon Valley chip designer will need to feed the red-hot global artificial intelligence sector. Nvidia would use the Taipei site for a “commercial office” building and the acquisition of land for a “comprehensive business park”, the island's Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Wednesday. The approval came a......

Gold's blistering rally to start 2026 – surging past US$5,500 an ounce – has already eclipsed many full-year price targets, forcing analysts to upgrade their outlooks. And for some, the US$6,000 threshold is now in view. The buying spree has prompted some Chinese funds to suspend new purchases, with one warning investors of “the risk of trading at a premium in the secondary market”. As of midday Thursday, spot gold stood at about US$5,540 per ounce, easing from an earlier high of US$5,598......

The sudden demise of a major gold trading platform has rocked the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, leaving tens of thousands of retail investors with combined losses totalling more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion), according to investors and domestic media reports. Chinese retail investors have rushed to capitalise on the unprecedented rally in global gold prices in recent months, leading many to put their funds into the online metals trading platform JWR. But as the gold spot price......

The financial head of Dutch chipmaking equipment giant ASML – following a year of double-digit sales growth for the company's machines – said he expects the firm's already declining sales to China to fall even further, as trade restrictions prevent shipments of the firm's most advanced units to Chinese clients and demand for other models is likely to taper off after an earlier rush. China's share of ASML's global sales dropped by 8 percentage points in 2025, falling to 33 per cent from the 41......