Key events
More on Shein. The company, which sells £5 dresses and £11-£15 jeans, is set to price its initial public offering (IPO) at HK$48.56 a share, near the midpoint of its HK$47.60 to HK$49.50 range, Reuters reported.
The IPO will value the company at about a quarter of its nearly $100bn peak in 2022, and well below the $66bn it was valued at in a 2023 fundraising round.
Shein, which is headquartered in Singapore and was founded in China, launched its Hong Kong IPO on Monday. It is due to announce the final IPO price next Monday, with trading expected to begin the following day.
It is one of the longest-awaited initial public offerings (IPO) of recent years, after plans to list in New York were blocked by regulators over forced labour concerns. Shein then considered a £50bn float in London, but faced similar questions about its supply chain from campaigners, MPs and investors.
Cornerstone investors, led by existing shareholders Boyu Capital, Tiger Global and General Atlantic, have subscribed for $383m of shares, its prospectus showed. Tencent , Greenwoods, Taikang Life and UBS Asset Management will also buy shares.
Shein has said it will use 80% of the proceeds to improve its technology and expand its brand and global reach. It has also agreed to pay up to $3.5bn in cash to certain investors who bought special shares in earlier private funding rounds.
The retailer is grappling with slower revenue growth, weaker earnings and shrinking profit margins.
Introduction: Asian technology shares ride high on AI optimism after Nvidia’s ‘stunning’ results
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the global economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
Asian technology shares rose after bumper results from the US chipmaker Nvidia last night.
There was a sigh of relief after AI bellwether Nvidia reported a doubling in quarterly revenue to nearly $100bn and forecast third-quarter revenue above Wall Street forecasts. The chipmaker, the most valuable company in the world with a $5tn market cap, made revenues of $96bn in the second quarter which is set to rise to $108bn in the third.
Jensen Huang, the Californian company’s founder and chief executive, jubilantly declared that demand is accelerating as the AI industry had reached a “golden age”.
The results showed no signs of slowing demand for chips and revived confidence in the AI trade after a recent sell-off in tech shares on Wall Street and Asia, leading to a massive drop in the South Korean stock market in July.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, described the figures as “nothing short of stunning”.
Nvidia shares rose 4.7% in post-market trading to $219.53 and if the rally continues into Thursday, as Brooks expects, it could break through the $220 barrier, heading towards the $235 highs seen in May.
Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at the Wealth Club, said:
The AI juggernaut is rumbling on with Nvidia smashing through expectations, amid voracious demand for the tech backbone of the AI revolution. The results solidified high expectations for the company’s mega revenues going forward, and shares firmed up, leaving behind the post-results wobbles seen after previous updates. Given the might of Nvidia, which carries the largest weight of any company in the S&P 500, the results are closely watched as a gauge of sentiment towards AI adoption, and the prospects for the index, which so many portfolios track.
Demand for its Blackwell chips has been particularly significant, showing that customers are continuing to spend heavily on Nvidia’s newest generation of AI accelerators rather than simply filling existing capacity. With demand still running ahead of supply, Blackwell is helping to power the next leg of the AI infrastructure build-out.
However, once the initial excitement settles, questions are likely to resurface about the durability of this boom in revenues. It’s becoming less about whether Nvidia can keep climbing the AI mountain, and more about how long it can sustain this extraordinary pace of ascent and whether the vast sums being poured into AI infrastructure will ultimately deliver the returns needed to justify the colossal investment.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.3%, with shares in the memory chipmaker Samsung Electronics up 3%.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges climbed 0.95% and 1.37% respectively while the Singapore market added 0.4% and Taiwan was 0.3% ahead. However, other major Asian markets were in the red, with Japan’s Nikkei edging 0.2% lower and the Australian exchange falling nearly 1%.
In Hong Kong, the online fashion retailer Shein is set to price its stock market flotation at $26.5bn, raising $1.7bn, Reuters reported, citing two sources.
In the US, the Jackson Hole economic policy symposium kicks off today, and markets are on tenterhooks for a keynote speech from US Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh on Friday.
The Agenda
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Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium begins in the US
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1.30pm BST: US Initial jobless claims for week to 22 August
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1.30pm BST: US trade in goods for July
