China's Kuaishou Technology hits 6-month peak on upbeat earnings outlook

Kuaishou Technology

01/08/2023 03:57

** Shares of Kuaishou Technology  1024.HK  rise as much as
7.9% to HK$72.50, their highest since Feb 2, and on course for a
sixth consecutive session of gains
    ** Stock is the second-biggest pct gainer in Hang Seng Tech
Index  .HSTECH  and Hang Seng Composite Index, which tracks
information technology firms  .HSCIIT  
    ** China's short video apps operator Kuaishou expects to
record H1 net profit of no less than 560 mln yuan ($78.14 mln),
representing a turnaround from the net loss 9.43 bln yuan for
the same period in 2022 
    ** Says the turnaround is due to increasing scale of user
community, strong growth in revenues benefiting from enhanced
monetization strategy and improvement in operating efficiency
    ** Jefferies maintains "buy" rating on the stock, citing the
 announcement is a positive surprise to 2Q earnings and the
strong beat comes from gross profit margin better revenue
sharing ratio 
    ** The Hang Seng Composite Index on information technology
firms  .HSCIIT  gains 1% and the Hang Seng Tech Index  .HSTECH 
rises 1.2%, and Hang Seng Index  .HSI  climbs 0.3%
    ** As of last close, stock down 5.4% this year

    ($1 = 7.1670 Chinese yuan)

 (Reporting by Donny Kwok)
 ((donny.kwok@thomsonreuters.com))