Hong Kong Dollar / U.S. Dollar

The Plunge That Shook the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

When trading opened in Hong Kong on 22.07.2026 Wednesday morning, no one expected such a nightmare. Shares of TPSRF ... International, one of China’s largest sportswear retailers, plunged 26.2% almost instantly, reaching an all-time low of HKDUSD ... HK$1.41.

This was not merely a market correction. It was a collapse that wiped out nearly a quarter of the company’s market capitalization within minutes. By the time the figures were recorded, the shares had recovered slightly but were still deeply in negative territory, down approximately 23.6% at HK$1.46. Traders stared at their screens in disbelief, repeatedly checking the data and wondering whether what they were seeing was real.

The reason for the collapse was as sudden as a lightning strike and as destructive as a tsunami. The previous evening, after the main trading session had closed, Topsports received an official notice from American sportswear giant NKE ... . Beginning on January 1, 2027, their long-standing partnership covering online sales in mainland China would be terminated completely.

Nike—the iconic Swoosh brand that had supported Topsports’ business for many years—had decided to sever its digital relationship with the retailer. A decision made quietly in corporate offices at Nike’s Oregon headquarters triggered a financial earthquake thousands of miles away in Hong Kong.

To understand the scale of the problem, online sales of Nike products accounted for approximately 22% of Topsports’ total revenue in the financial year that ended on February 28, 2026. This was not a small slice of the pie. It represented almost a quarter of the entire business.

Imagine that your primary supplier, responsible for nearly one in every four of your customers, suddenly tells you: “Starting next year, we will no longer work together in the same way.” News like that can destroy almost any...

Numbers That Give Shareholders a Reason to Smile

When Cathay CPCAY ... Airways opened its financial books on Wednesday morning, the aviation market was taken by surprise. Its profit for the first half of 2026 was not merely strong — it was exceptional. The airline expects to report between HKDUSD ... HK$6 billion and HK$6.5 billion, equivalent to nearly US$840 million. That is almost twice as much as the HK$3.7 billion earned during the same period last year.

However, these figures deserve a closer look. Nearly HK$1.5 billion of the total came from a one-off gain related to the sale of a stake in Air China. In other words, although the company’s operating performance was impressive, it was not quite as dazzling as the headline figure might initially suggest. Even after excluding this windfall, however, profit still increased by more than HK$1 billion compared with the previous year. That reflects serious operational progress rather than simply a successful share transaction.

For an airline that was recently fighting for survival amid pandemic restrictions, such a turnaround appears almost miraculous. Yet this miracle has several very specific causes. We are accustomed to seeing good news for one company create problems for another. In the case of this Hong Kong-based carrier, however, the story is unusual. Cathay Pacific has managed not only to survive the turbulent waters of geopolitics and rising oil prices, but also to learn how to profit from them.

Passenger Boom: Why People Are Flying Again

The number of passengers carried rose by 17.5% year on year. These are not merely statistics — they represent real people filling economy-class seats, business-class cabins, and even first class. The passenger load factor climbed to 87.5%, an increase of 2.7 percentage points from the previous year. Most aircraft were departing nearly full, while on peak...

Monday’s Surge: Shares of the Chinese Giant Move Higher

The first day of the week proved triumphant for BABA ... Alibaba. The company’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange surged 5.2% to HKDUSD ... HK$118.40. The rally was not simply the result of favorable market conditions—it was driven by a specific technological breakthrough that investors immediately recognized.

On Saturday, Alibaba released a preview version of its new artificial intelligence model, Qwen3.8 Max. This is not just another routine update—it is a bold bid for leadership in the global AI race. The model contains 2.4 trillion parameters, placing it among the most powerful AI systems in the world. Alibaba claims that it is surpassed only by Anthropic’s latest flagship product, which would represent a major technological achievement.

However, what truly ignited the market was Alibaba’s promise to release the model’s weights in the near future. This is far more than a technical detail. It is a strategic move that could fundamentally strengthen Alibaba’s position in the AI industry.

Open models attract developer communities, accelerate innovation, and help create entire ecosystems around a product. The more developers who adopt Qwen, the stronger Alibaba’s competitive position is likely to become.

Qwen3.8 Max: What Kind of Beast Is It?

A model with 2.4 trillion parameters is not impressive merely because of the size of the number. It suggests that the model can process enormous volumes of data, understand complex contexts, and generate more accurate responses. Generally, the more parameters a model has, the more powerful it can be—although it also becomes more difficult and expensive to train.

Alibaba appears to have found a balance between power and efficiency. The company has not disclosed all the technical details, but it describes Qwen3.8 Max as one of the world’s most powerful AI models, reportedly ranking behind only...