Glonghui, March 8 | Citi published a research report saying it was pleasantly surprised by the Hong Kong government's complete withdrawal, but it still believes that due to current interest levels and buyers' lack of confidence, demand for housing in Hong Kong will still be suppressed in the short term, and believes that it is too early to expect that developers' intention to bid for the MTR project will improve. The bank also indicated that the basic profit of the MTR in 2023 fell by 40% year-on-year to HK$6.364 billion, which was lower than the market's forecast of HK$7.018 billion, mainly due to a sharp drop of 80% in profit recorded for property development during the period. Benefiting from the resumption of cross-border transportation and high-speed rail business, Hong Kong's vehicle operating losses narrowed by 76.5% year-on-year to HK$1,111 billion last year. The MTR said it will relaunch the first phase of the Tung Chung East Station project for tender within this year, but Citibank estimates that the economic benefits obtained by the MTR from the project may fall far short of expectations. Therefore, it maintains a “sale and sale” rating, and the target price was lowered from HK$26.5 to HK$23.