HK stocks inch up as all eyes turn to Xi-Trump summit

Hong Kong and mainland stocks eked out gains on Tuesday as investors assessed their positions ahead of a meeting of the presidents of China and the United States this week, while AI shares rose after officials of the two countries agreed to hold talks on the safety of artificial intelligence. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 45 points, or 0.2 percent, to 25,087 on turnover of HK$249.21 billion. The tech index rose 14 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,438 while the China enterprises index gained 22 points, or 0.3 percent, to 8,362. Hong Kong shares of Alibaba Group hit a one-month high at one point after chief executive Eddie Wu said on Tuesday that the firm aims for its cloud global data centre capacity to surpass 20 GW by 2032. Tencent ⁠Holdings jumped after it released a preview of its latest AI image-generation model. Up north, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index inched up two points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,952. The Shenzhen Component Index too barely registered movement, closing six points, or 0.05 percent, lower at 13,723 while the ChiNext barely moved the needle from its opening to end 0.91 percent, at 3,399. Shanghai's tech-focused Star50 index rose 0.5 percent while an AI sub-index advanced. Senior Chinese...