Hong Kong stocks opened high and fell, collectively closing lower in the final trading session, while South Korea ETFs strengthened throughout the day and technology innovation ETFs fell from their highs. As of the close, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.03% to 25386.52 points, with a total daily turnover of 298.552 billion Hong Kong dollars; the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 2.15% to 4768.9 points. In terms of Hong Kong stock ETFs, among the products ranked by size, Ping An Fund (02800) fell 0.93% to 25.62 Hong Kong dollars; South Hang Seng Technology (03033) fell 2.14% to 4.668 Hong Kong dollars; and South Double Bull Micron (07709) rose 13.74% to 93.06 Hong Kong dollars. Industry Performance 1. The South Korean stock market rebounded strongly, with related ETFs strengthening throughout the day. By the close, South Double Bull Micron (07709) rose 13.74% to 93.06 Hong Kong dollars; South Double Bull Samsung Electronics (07747) rose 10.84% to 153.9 Hong Kong dollars; and TR Korea (02848) rose 8.33% to 1852.5 Hong Kong dollars. The crisis of the Samsung Electronics labor union strike has been temporarily resolved, combined with Nvidia's financial results exceeding expectations overnight driving positive sentiment in the AI sector, leading to a significant rebound in the Korean composite index. According to a statement released by Samsung Electronics late Wednesday local time, both labor and management have reached a preliminary consensus on wages and collective bargaining agreements. The union subsequently confirmed the suspension of the planned strike from May 21 to June 7. The new agreement introduces a long-term special performance bonus program for the semiconductor sector. South Korea's Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon urgently convened overnight negotiations between the two parties, a key factor in facilitating the final reconciliation. A Nomura Securities report on May 20 pointed out that with the dawn of Samsung's labor negotiations and the suspension of a large strike, related ETFs in Hong Kong surged. The report raised this year's target for the South Korean KOSPI index from the previous 7,500-8,000 points to 10,000-11,000 points, driven mainly by enterprise profits and stock return cycles. Nomura Securities believes that general memory and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) are currently in a super cycle, which will be the main driver of earnings growth and stock return rates for KOSPI index constituents in the next two years in South Korea. In addition, South Korea's push for reforms in the KOSDAQ small-cap index and MSCI's inclusion of South Korea on the watch list for developed markets will also serve as additional catalysts. 2. The Sci-Tech 50 index rose and then fell back, with the semiconductor and CPO sectors plunging in the final trading session, leading to a high-level decline in related innovation ETFs. By the close, the Sci-Tech Semiconductor ETF Huaxia (588170) fell 6.80% to 2.534 yuan; the Sci-Tech 100 ETF Guotai (588120) fell 5.31% to 1.802 yuan; and the Sci-Tech Chip ETF Jiashi (588200) fell 5.23% to 3.569 yuan. Stimulated by a surge in AI chip stocks abroad, the Sci-Tech 50 index surged in the morning but saw a more than 3% increase in the afternoon. The semiconductor and computational hardware industry chains saw significant adjustments, with CPO and memory sector leading the decline. After the market close on Wednesday local time, Nvidia released first quarter financial results that exceeded expectations, but continued to drop for the fourth consecutive time after-hours. It is worth noting that the company's management explicitly stated that the quarterly guidance did not include any revenue from Chinese data center computing, indicating ongoing uncertainty. Moreover, during the latest financial report conference call, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed that the company plans to start production and delivery of the next-generation rack-level AI system, Vera Rubin, in the second half of this year. Bank of America Securities believes that in the short term, as Vera Rubin adopts Blackwell's rack architecture, the product transition period's gross margin rate remains relatively stable. However, in the medium to long term, the rising cost ratio of HBM memory will continue to be a pressure point. Market expectations indicate that Nvidia's gross margin will fluctuate within the range of 74% to 75% in the first quarter, with Bank of America Securities emphasizing that any outperformance in gross margin performance will be a positive catalyst. Institutional Views According to China Merchants Securities, looking ahead, the probability of a volatile upward trend in the Hong Kong stock market remains high. The main driving factors are: first, moderate rebound in domestic price data, alleviating market concerns about price levels, with potential for upward revisions in corporate profit expectations; second, reduced short-term geopolitical risks due to interactions between China and the US at high levels, which could continue to improve market risk appetite if there are substantive developments in trade, energy, aviation, financial liberalization, and chip supply, among other areas; third, the AI industry trend remains clear, with Capital spending, revenue guidance, and commercial progress of leading companies such as Alibaba and Tencent providing important valuation support for the technology sector. ETF Trends On May 21, three new ETFs were listed on the exchange for the first time: 1. The New Battery ETF HuaTai Bairui (560910) was listed for the first time, falling by 2.06% to 0.999 yuan, with a turnover of 157 million yuan. The fund tracks the CSI Battery Theme Index, covering power batteries, energy storage batteries, consumer electronics batteries, and the upper and lower segments of the battery industry chain, with battery-related constituents accounting for 67%. 2. The Non-ferrous Metal ETF Guanfa (159029) was listed for the first time, falling by 2.41% to 0.93 yuan, with a turnover of 26.5869 million yuan. The fund tracks the CSI Nonferrous Metal Mining Theme Index, focusing on the extraction, smelting, and processing industry chain of copper, gold, lithium, rare earths, and other non-ferrous metals. 3. The Grain ETF Yifang Da (159038) was listed for the first time, falling by 2.33% to 0.965 yuan, with a turnover of 26.4935 million yuan. The fund tracks the National Grain Industry Index, covering core links in the grain industry chain such as seed industry, planting, and fertilizers.