HSBC Global Research has published a report proposing nine themes for investing opportunities in climate, society, and economic drivers in the future, and selected 99 global stocks rated "buy". The four themes with positive trends are: demographic statistics (the impact of falling birth rates and increasing life expectancy on policy), disruptive technologies (such as artificial intelligence), automation development (such as AI robots), and trade flow (industrial strategy and geopolitics). The theme facing headwinds is future transportation (penetration rate of electric vehicles in Europe and America did not meet expectations).

The other four themes maintain their future trends, namely: energy transformation, urbanization development, consumption patterns, and digital finance.

In the automation theme, HSBC believes that Techtronic Industries (00669.HK) will continue to benefit from the prosperous cycle of the US construction industry. Its brands such as Milwaukee will continue to penetrate more professional customers, and the expected product line improvement will drive this year's gross margin increase by 0.4 percentage points to 39.9%.

In addition, the bank believes that Chow Tai Fook (01929.HK) will be one of the major beneficiaries of future demographic trends. Although the number of marriages in the mainland is decreasing, consumers' jewelry expenses for self-rewards are increasing, which is also considered a value-preserving investment. At the same time, it also benefited from the recovery of mainland visitors to Hong Kong. Its product cycle is strong, and its stores continue to expand, enabling the company's growth to outperform its peers.

Hong Kong stocks and their target prices among the 99 theme stocks from HSBC are as follows:

Stock | Target price (HKD)

Techtronic Industries (00669.HK) | 123

Chow Tai Fook (01929.HK) | 13.5

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (00388.HK) | 312

China Power (02380.HK) | 4.5

EB Environment (00257.HK) | 4.4

China Overseas (00688.HK) | 24.3

China Res Mixc (01209.HK) | 38.4

BYD Company (01211.HK) | 322

(cy/u)

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