Chinese traders shrug off volatility to buy Hong Kong stocks for third straight month

Mainland Chinese investors extended their buying spree of Hong Kong stocks in March, looking past the turmoil triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran and betting that Chinese assets would be able to withstand the oil shock.

Onshore traders bought HK$61.4 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s stocks through the cross-border exchange link programme last month, marking a third consecutive month of net inflows, data from the Hong Kong stock exchange and Bloomberg showed. The buying came even as the Hang Seng Index fell 6.9 per cent in March, as the ripple effects of the hostilities in the Middle East were felt by markets across the world.

That took the combined buying by mainland investors to HK$220.9 billion in the first quarter after a record net inflow of HK$1.4 trillion in 2025, the data showed.

Onshore demand for Hong Kong equities – China’s primary offshore market, home to many of the nation’s tech giants and artificial intelligence start-ups – has fundamental support. Renewable energy has already overtaken oil as China’s second-largest energy source, meaning that the world’s second-largest economy is now much less susceptible to disruptions to crude supply than many other countries and that risk assets would hold up relatively well.

“China’s lower structural sensitivity to oil price volatility and greater capacity to absorb energy shocks make it a more resilient market within Asia,” said Desmond Foo, investment director at Leo Wealth, a wealth advisory firm. “For investors with Asia-focused allocations, this suggests China may play a stabilising role within portfolios during periods of energy-driven uncertainty.”