Hong Kong’s new tech index up 3.5% on the second day of trade

From left, the flags of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China and Hong Kong are seen flapping in the wind on May 6, 2019.

Hong Kong’s new tech index rose on its second day of trading as experts said its diverse list of constituents will be attractive for traders looking to invest across the sector.

The Hang Seng Tech Index rose 3.51%, beating the broader Hang Seng index which traded up 0.69%.

“It’s a really good, I think, list of constituents across multiple slices of the tech sector,” said Sam Le Cornu, CEO and co-founder of Stonehorn Global Partners.

The tech index was launched on Monday and tracks the 30 largest technology companies listed in Hong Kong that pass the screening criteria.

Tech shares are some of the top traded stocks in Hong Kong. The new index trades at about 45 times earnings, versus the Hang Seng Composite Index’s price-to-earnings ratio of 12, according to data published by Hang Seng Indexes Company before the new index’s first day of trading.

The top five firms listed on the index are Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan Dianping, Xiaomi and Sunny Optical, which had a combined weight of more than 40% as of July 17. Others include Ali Health, JD.com, Lenovo, Ping An Good Doctor and ZTE.

“So, it’s not just hardware, you’ve also got some insurance in there, you’ve got some cloud computing, you’ve got fintech, e-commerce, you have got a really nice slice. The only thing it doesn’t have, I think, is renewable tech. So, it doesn’t have batteries in there,” Le Cornu said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.

“Apart from that, it’s a really interesting tech index and I think it will be one which would be followed very closely,” he added.