(Yicai) June 6 -- US banking giant JPMorgan Chase bought a whopping HKD3.3 billion (USD422 million) of stocks in Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, including lender China Merchants Bank, duty free chain operator China Tourism Group Duty Free and short video platform Bilibili, in just one day, according to data disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.

JPMorgan increased its holdings in Bilibili by 14.3 million shares on May 30, paying HKD107.20 (USD13.73) per share, or HKD154 million (USD19.7 million) in total, to boost its stake to 8.3 percent.

The same day, the New York-based lender also hiked its shareholdings in China Merchants Bank to 6.5 percent, purchasing 40.3 million shares at an average price of HKD35.35 (USD4.20) apiece, equivalent to a total spend of HKD1.4 billion.

Also on May 30, it boosted its holdings in China Tourism Group to 11.2 percent, snapping up 73.9 million shares at an average price of HKD65.05 (USD8.33) apiece, amounting to an investment of HKD48 million (USD6.1 million).

JPMorgan also purchased 64.7 million shares in the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, operator of the Hong Kong bourse, that day at an average price per share of HKD263.75 (USD33.77), coming to a total of HKD1.7 billion (USD217,700), and bringing its shareholding ratio to 6.3 percent.

The bold move comes as a number of foreign financial institutions including Switzerland’s UBS, the UK’s HSBC and the US’ Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citi express their optimism about Chinese stocks.

UBS has adjusted the investment rating and target price of airport operator China Merchants Port Holdings and auto manufacturer Great Wall Motors, Citi has revised upwards its target price of Alibaba Health Information Technology, the online healthcare arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings, to HKD9.50 (USD1.22), while Bank of America and BofA Securities have raised their target price for Shanghai-based Bilibili’s stock to HKD140 (USD18) and HSBC has upped its target price for tech giant Xiaomi to HKD25.30.

Foreign capital has been flowing into stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen in recent months. In May, northbound funds, or funds flowing from Hong Kong to the mainland stock exchanges, increased for the fourth straight month, reaching CNY8.7 billion (USD1.2 billion), according to figures from financial information provider Wind. As of yesterday, northbound funds had already topped CNY82.3 billion (USD11.4 billion) this year, more than the whole of last year.

Editor: Kim Taylor