The Exchange Marketing
Critique Worksheet

The Hang Seng Biotech Index (HSBIO) recorded a 79% increase from the start of 2025 to end‑January 2026, according to official data. HKEX offers a range of listed instruments that provide access to the biotech sector, and five are set out below.

1. Biotech equities. Hong Kong-listed biotech companies span areas including immuno‑oncology, AI‑enabled drug discovery, next‑generation vaccines and surgical robotics. As of end-February 2026, more than 260 biotech and healthcare companies are listed on HKEX, with a combined market capitalisation of over HK$5 trillion.

2. Biotech-linked ETFs. Biotech ETFs offer broad coverage of the major biotech constituents listed in Hong Kong, plus a way to gain diversified exposure to companies influenced by policy developments and demographic trends. Total AUM for Hong Kong-listed biotech ETFs stood at HK$1.5 billion in March 2021 and HK$13.8 billion at the end of January 2026.

3. Biotech structured products. The number of biotech‑linked derivative warrants grew from 132 in January 2025 to around 500 at the end of January 2026, with average daily turnover reaching HK$252 million.

4. Hang Seng Biotech Index Futures. HSBIO has historically exhibited higher volatility than broader indices such as HSI and HSCEI. Launched in November 2025, Hang Seng Biotech Index Futures adds a listed derivatives component to HKEX's biotech‑related product offering. As at end-January 2026, average daily volume reached 428 contracts, with a record single‑day volume of 1,013 contracts on 28 January.

5. Northbound Stock Connect access. Northbound Stock Connect offers direct access to biotech stocks and ETFs listed in the Chinese Mainland and expands the range of accessible instruments.

Market enhancements, listings by high-quality, innovative companies and strong investor participation are building a world-leading healthcare fundraising ecosystem in Hong Kong.

Key takeaways:
In H1 2025, Hong Kong led globally in healthcare IPO fundraising, with 10 issuers raising US$2.1 billion.
Follow-on activity was strong too, with 27 deals raising US$3.9 billion in H1 2025 – more than double the total in FY 2024.
With 255 listed healthcare companies and a proactive approach to listing enhancements, Hong Kong has a world-class healthcare ecosystem and fundraising platform.
The Chapter 18A listing reform has been transformative, enabling 73 biotech listings that raised US$16 billion as of 30 June 2025 and contributed a total market cap of US$121 billion.

Since the first healthcare listings in the late 1980s, Hong Kong has evolved into a world-leading fundraising hub for the sector. What began as a pharmaceutical-focused market has grown into a diverse, innovation-driven ecosystem featuring companies in cutting-edge fields including innovative therapeutics, digital health, medical devices and AI-powered medtech and drug discovery.

Chapter 18C of the Main Board Listing Rules forms part of HKEX's broader efforts to enhance Hong Kong's listing framework for innovative and high‑growth companies. Introduced in 2023, Chapter 18C provides a dedicated pathway for Specialist Technology Companies that may not yet meet the financial eligibility tests under the conventional listing route.

To be eligible, a company must be primarily engaged in an Acceptable Specialist Technology Industry, as defined in the rules. These currently include Next Generation Information Technology, Advanced Hardware and Software, Advanced Materials, New Energy and Environmental Protection, and New Food and Agricultural Technology.

The rules set out two categories of listing applicant: Commercial Companies and Pre-Commercial Companies. Commercial Companies must have generated at least HK$250 million in revenue in their most recent audited financial year. Pre-Commercial Companies are not required to meet a revenue test but must have received at least HK$150 million in investment from Sophisticated Independent Investors.

A standout performance in the first half of 2025 underscored the vibrancy and depth of Hong Kong's markets and showcased the city's role as a global financial hub.

Amid the record-breaking activity, a handful of facts and figures on HKEX's secondary markets stand out. From rising turnover to a surge in derivatives volumes, this article highlights eight of these key data points from the first half of 2025.

+118% YoY – market turnover tops HK$240 billion. The Stock Exchange recorded an average daily turnover (ADT) of HK$240.2 billion in H1 2025, a period that includes five of HKEX's top trading days by turnover ever. This increase led to an 118% jump in turnover when compared with HK$110.4 billion for the same period last year.

+184% YoY – ETF daily turnover accelerates to HK$33.8 billion. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) notched a sizeable rise in ADT, reaching HK$33.8 billion in H1 2025 – an increase of 184% from HK$11.9 billion over the same period last year.

+195% YoY – Southbound Stock Connect daily turnover tops HK$110 billion. ADT from the Southbound channel of the mutual market access programme Stock Connect reached HK$110.96 billion in H1 2025, a 195% increase compared with the same period in 2024.

Hong Kong's capital markets saw exceptional levels of activity in 2025, supported by outperformance of many listed shares, record turnover and strong Southbound Stock Connect trading.

2025 equity capital market (ECM) fundraising grew 164% year-on-year to US$103 billion, with IPOs and follow-on fundraising surging 231% and 136% year-on-year respectively. Hong Kong ranked first globally in IPO fundraising in 2025, according to HKEX data, with 78 new listings raising US$43 billion — the highest annual total since 2021.

The year was marked by a series of landmark transactions. Several of the largest IPOs in the world in 2025 listed in Hong Kong, including a number of high-profile technology and consumer companies from the Chinese Mainland. These listings attracted significant international institutional investor participation and contributed to the record-breaking turnover seen across the exchange.

What does the rebound of 2025 mean for the future of Hong Kong's markets? My colleagues and I have been asked to explain this in media interviews, on panel discussions, at conferences and in meetings around the world. It has been a very busy year for us at HKEX, from the surge of blockbuster IPOs to the record volumes across our markets. But what happens next?

To understand the near future, we must look at the recent past. In considering the key drivers of market performance in the last 12 months, I identify two major forces at play.

Push and pull. The first is a broad trend of global capital diversification, which is being driven by the persistence of macro uncertainty. The global capital formation order is changing, and a new equilibrium has yet to be found. For some time, enabled by technology, global capital has been increasingly gravitating towards one market and a handful of stocks. Now, as global investors adopt to an increasingly multipolar world, they are starting to seek diversified growth and risk management opportunities around the world.

Hong Kong's markets have been especially sensitive to this change in investor behaviour. Since late 2024, global investors have been finding diversification opportunities in Asia and through Hong Kong, the region's most globally connected IFC. The twenty most active trading days in the history of our markets took place since September 2024.

Published on a semi-annual basis, this newsletter keeps you updated on our regulatory developments and supports you on your compliance journey.

This edition covers: recent amendments to the Listing Rules; updates on enforcement actions and disciplinary proceedings; guidance on disclosure obligations for listed issuers; reminders on planning for upcoming audit committee requirements; and a summary of recent listing decisions and their implications for issuers.

We encourage listed issuers to review the contents carefully and to consult with their advisers on any matters that may be relevant to their specific circumstances.

From Nasdaq TradeTalks — my conversation exploring how shifts in public policy are influencing investor strategy, economic momentum, and market behavior.

In this episode, we discuss: the impact of tariff uncertainty on portfolio positioning; how institutional investors are adjusting their Asia allocation; the role of AI-driven companies in reshaping sector weightings; and what the next 12 months of policy risk means for active managers.

TradeTalks features daily conversations with market experts, investors, and policymakers from the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. New episodes every trading day.

The campaign achieved a 4.2% click-through rate, which is 1.5x above the industry standard for financial services display advertising. We generated 1.2 million impressions across the three broker platforms, 50,000 unique page views on the HKEX AI product hub, and 2,000 newsletter sign-ups. The campaign ran for six weeks at a total cost of HK$800,000. Cost per click was HK$16, which is within benchmark.

Unlike FinTech platforms where we can track a direct lead-to-conversion funnel, exchange marketing operates differently. We are dealing with the macro environment and a complex ecosystem of brokers, intermediaries, and market conditions. We don't have look-through data to see exactly which retail investor bought which derivative after seeing our ad. Our role is more about brand awareness and education — creating the conditions for participation rather than driving a specific transaction.

Bloomberg is the primary information platform for institutional investors globally. Our advertising presence on Bloomberg creates a halo effect for the HKEX brand among the institutional investor community. It ensures that when global portfolio managers are thinking about Asia allocation, HKEX is top of mind. It is difficult to measure directly, but the brand visibility it provides is essential for maintaining our position as Asia's premier exchange.

We are proposing a thematic marketing campaign focused on AI and robotics, timed to the strong performance of AI-linked stocks on HKEX. The campaign would run across Futu, Tiger, and moomoo, with supporting content on LinkedIn and WeChat. We would create a series of educational articles, banner ads, and email campaigns targeting retail investors interested in the technology sector. The budget requested is HK$1.2 million for a 6-week campaign. We believe this will increase awareness of HKEX's AI product ecosystem and drive traffic to our product pages.

At the heart of Cboe's Life is Better With Options campaign is a simple idea: options create opportunity. Just as they bring choice, versatility and flexibility to everyday life, options can help investors manage risk, generate income and redefine their risk-return profiles to potentially optimize their portfolio and investment performance.

The campaign features a series of TV commercials, digital ads, and social media content that use everyday life scenarios — choosing a career path, planning a trip, deciding where to live — as metaphors for the value of options in investing. The tagline "Life is Better With Options" is designed to be memorable, emotionally resonant, and applicable both literally and financially.

The campaign marks the first time a major derivatives exchange has launched a national television advertising campaign in the United States. It ran across major cable news networks, sports broadcasts, and streaming platforms, targeting both retail investors and financial advisers.

We started SGX Academy back in 2008 as a platform to drive financial literacy and address a growing need to empower the retail communities to make important and educated financial decisions. Back then, financial literacy was a fledgling initiative amongst exchanges and, today, we remain one of the few exchanges in Asia that has dedicated investor-education and professional training programmes.

We started small, with weekly face-to-face investor-education seminars. Today, we conduct more than 250 investor-education online events annually. Our SGX Academy programmes have supported more than 800,000 individuals since 2008, and continue to support individuals in their investing journey. We aim to provide practical content that is tailored to investors' demographic profile, life stages and individual proficiency.

A key goal for us is to empower and encourage the retail community to embark on their investment journey early. Time is an important factor when it comes to compounding wealth, and individuals need to be equipped with the knowledge to start investing and managing their finances early.

Despite Southeast Asia's economies rapidly maturing along with the accelerating adoption of technology, surveys have found that Southeast Asia is among the regions in the world with the lowest financial literacy. Given that the broader Asia region will be home to the majority of the globe's middle class in less than a decade, it is even more critical that financial literacy be brought to attention.

Launched in April 2026, "Invest for the Future" is a national campaign funded jointly by the London Stock Exchange, major UK brokers, and asset managers. The campaign features "Savvy the Squirrel" — an animated character designed to make investing approachable for first-time investors — and runs across TV, digital, social media, and financial education platforms.

The campaign's central message: investing is not just for the wealthy or the financially sophisticated. It is for anyone who wants to build a better future. The squirrel metaphor — saving for winter, planning ahead — is designed to be universally relatable and culturally resonant for a UK audience.

The industry-funded model means no single exchange or broker bears the full cost. The campaign is positioned as a public good — growing the overall market benefits every participant. This model has been used successfully in other markets, including Australia's "Invest in Your Future" campaign funded by the ASX and major brokers.

1. Simplify your message. Retail investors are not financial professionals. Avoid jargon, use plain language, and focus on what matters to them: returns, risk, and relevance to their lives.

2. Be consistent. Retail investors build trust through repeated, reliable communication. Irregular or inconsistent messaging erodes confidence.

3. Use multiple channels. Retail investors consume information across social media, email, apps, and traditional media. A single-channel strategy misses most of your audience.

4. Tell stories, not statistics. Data is important, but stories are what retail investors remember and share. Lead with the human impact, then support with data.

5. Be transparent about risk. Retail investors who feel misled become the loudest critics. Transparency about risk builds long-term trust and reduces regulatory exposure.

6. Engage, don't broadcast. Retail investors want to feel heard. Create opportunities for two-way communication — Q&As, surveys, community forums — not just one-way announcements.

7. Measure what matters. Track engagement, sentiment, and behaviour — not just impressions. Understand what your retail investors are actually doing after they receive your communication.

SGX RegCo is consulting on a proposal to reduce the board lot size for securities priced above S$2.00 per share. Under the proposal, the minimum board lot size for these higher-priced stocks would be reduced from 100 shares to 10 shares.

By reducing the board lot size for these higher-priced stocks, we bring the minimum investment down from a few thousand dollars to just a few hundred dollars. The exchange says the lower minimum investment size for higher-priced securities could broaden investor participation and improve liquidity for these counters.

The consultation period runs until 28 February 2026. SGX RegCo welcomes feedback from all market participants, including retail investors, brokers, and listed companies.

Every trading day at 9:30am ET, the New York Stock Exchange rings the Opening Bell. What began as a simple signal to start trading has become one of the most recognisable brand rituals in global finance. Companies pay to ring the bell on their IPO day. Celebrities, athletes, and world leaders ring it to mark milestones. The bell-ringing is live-streamed, photographed, and shared globally.

The NYSE Opening Bell generates millions of dollars of earned media annually — without a single advertising dollar spent. It is covered by CNBC, Bloomberg, Reuters, and every major financial news outlet in the world, every single day. The companies that ring the bell receive global visibility. NYSE receives global brand reinforcement as the centre of global capital markets.

The ritual works because it is: (1) consistent — it happens every day without fail; (2) visual — it is designed to be photographed and filmed; (3) participatory — companies and individuals are invited to be part of it; and (4) emotionally resonant — it marks real moments of achievement and aspiration.

HKEX launched a social media and out-of-home campaign featuring the iconic Hong Kong red taxi as a symbol of the exchange's global expansion and connectivity. The campaign ran across HKEX's social media channels and featured the red taxi — one of Hong Kong's most recognisable cultural symbols — in international settings, representing the idea that Hong Kong's capital markets are now present in financial centres around the world.

The campaign was designed to communicate HKEX's international ambitions to both domestic and international audiences, using a culturally resonant symbol that is immediately recognisable to anyone who has visited or lived in Hong Kong. The red taxi imagery was used across LinkedIn, WeChat, and outdoor advertising in key financial districts.