Hong Kong Stock Market Update | SMIC rises over 3%, leading the chip stocks. Taiwan Semiconductor's Q4 net profit and revenue both exceed expectations.

Chip stocks rose across the board in early trading. As of the time of writing, SMIC rose 3.16% to HKD 16.34, while HUA HONG SEMI rose 2.68% to HKD 18.44. On the news front, Taiwan Semiconductor announced that its Q4 performance exceeded market expectations. It achieved a net profit of TWD 238.7 billion in the previous quarter, a YoY decrease of 19%, but a QoQ increase of 13%, surpassing the market's expected TWD 224.13 billion. It also achieved revenue of TWD 625.5 billion, surpassing the market's expected TWD 618.3 billion. In terms of profit, the gross profit margin for the previous quarter was 53%, slightly higher than the expected 52.9%. In addition, Wei Zhejia, the President of Taiwan Semiconductor, pointed out that the demand for advanced packaging for AI chips remains strong, and the current situation is still that capacity cannot meet the strong demand from customers, and the supply-demand imbalance may continue until 2025. Wei Zhejia stated that Taiwan Semiconductor will continue to expand its advanced packaging capacity this year, with a planned doubling of capacity, but the supply-demand imbalance is expected to continue, with capacity expansion projected to continue until 2025.