China stocks have whipsawed in recent months on stimulus hopes and disappointment, along with the threat of new tariffs under President-elect Donald Trump. Still, several stocks are showing strength.
Tesla rivals BYD and Zeekr are near buy points, along with travel plays Atour Lifestyle Holdings and Trip.com as well as messaging and gaming giant Tencent.
Investors should pay attention to many other Chinese stocks, including e-commerce titan Alibaba, JD.com, search giant Baidu, data center play GDS Holdings, online entertainment concern Bilibili and gaming giant NetEase. Don't forget other EV makers, such as Li Auto, XPeng and Nio, as well as smartphone giant-turned-EV maker Xiaomi.
Top China ETFs
Investors wary of buying an individual Chinese stock could choose ETFs such as KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF, iShares China Large-Cap ETF and Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF. But these ETFs are prone to big gap-ups and -downs as well.
Top China Stocks To Buy Or Watch Now
| Company | Ticker | Industry Group | Composite Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trip.com | TCOM | Leisure-Travel Booking | 99 |
| BYD | BYDDF | Auto Manufacturers | n.a. |
| Zeekr | ZK | Auto Manufacturers | 71 |
| Tencent | TCEHY | Internet-Content | n.a. |
| Atour Lifestyle | ATAT | Leisure-Lodging | 98 |
Trip.com Stock
Trip.com is a China-based online travel site operator. It's benefited from a travel boom after China's long Covid restrictions were lifted in late 2022.
Q3 earnings rose 25% vs. a year earlier, the third straight quarter of decelerating growth, as comparisons get tougher. Revenue gained 20%, picking up from 13% in Q2. Travel seems be on the upswing globally.
Trip.com stock gapped out of a consolidation on Dec. 9, part of a big base-on-base formation. Shares soon pulled back into the buy zone and are now finding support at the 21-day line.
BYD Stock
The world's leading EV maker, BYD produces fully battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). It's also one of the world's largest battery makers.
BYD earnings rose 16% in Q3 vs. a year earlier. Revenue grew 29%, accelerating from 26% in Q2 and Q1's 1% decline. Notably, BYD revenue topped Tesla's for the first time.
Q4 revenue growth should accelerate.
In Q3 BYD sold a record 1,134,892 vehicles, up 37.3% vs. a year earlier and 7.6% vs. Q2's 986,720. PHEV sales soared 75.6% vs. a year before to 685,830. BEV passenger sales came in at 443,426, up 2.7% vs. a year earlier and 4.1% vs. Q2.
A rapid expansion of models, technology and markets has fueled BYD, which is building factories in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
In Q4, BYD is on track to sell well over 1.5 million EVs, easily clearing a full-year target of 4 million vehicles. BYD should comfortably top Tesla in BEV sales, even as it focuses on PHEVs.
BYD will release December, Q4 and 2024 sales figures on Jan. 1-2.
In early October, BYD topped the official 36.27 buy point, and quickly hit a two-year high of 42. But shares pulled back well below the buy point, forging a new base with a 42 buy point. Investors could use the Dec. 11 high of 37 as an early entry.
The Chinese stock is Hong Kong listed and trades over the counter in the U.S., so its U.S. stock chart shows lots of mini gap-ups and -downs.
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ZK Stock
Zeekr is a Chinese EV maker. It's actually a unit of China auto giant Geely and is moving toward integrating another Geely unit, Lynx.
Zeekr makes BEVs and PHEVs. It competes in the modest-to-mainstream markets, competing against BYD, XPeng, Tesla and others.
Zeekr is still losing money, though sales growth remains strong at 36% in Q3.
The startup will release December, Q4 and 2024 sales figures on Jan. 1.
ZK stock came public in the U.S. at 21 a share in May, hitting a record 32.24 on May 13, the second day of trading. Shares then plunged to 13 on Aug. 12 before rebounding. Shares broke out of a 36%-deep consolidation on Dec. 26, but fell back sharply the next day. The consolidation could be viewed as a huge handle to a very deep base.
Zeeker, like fellow startups XPeng, Nio and Li Auto, is prone to big daily swings.
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Tencent Stock
Tencent is a massive messaging and gaming giant. Its WeChat super app is the envy of the world. Strong gaming demand has fueled a big surge in earnings.
Q3 earnings leapt 42% vs. a year earlier, on a strong pace but snapping a seven-quarter string of accelerating growth. Revenue growth has picked up for the last two quarters, to 12%.
Tencent stock is in a 20%-deep consolidation, with a 61.60 buy point. Shares are mostly trading around the 50-day line, currently trading above the 50-day. The base forged just above a flat base and at the top of a mammoth consolidation going back to January 2023.
Tencent is Hong Kong listed and trades over the counter in the U.S., so its U.S. stock chart shows lots of mini gap-ups and -downs.
Atour Lifestyle Holdings
Atour Lifestyle owns and manages a hotel chain in China. As of June 30, there were 1,412 hotels across Atour's hotel network, with 123 new openings in the second quarter, a quarterly record. The company says it's the largest upper-midscale hotel chain in China in terms of rooms.
Chinese travel roared back in 2023 as Covid restrictions were lifted.
Atour earnings for Q3 rose 47% with revenue up 53%.
Shares of China stock Atour nearly doubled from early August to a 52-week high of 29.15 on Oct. 7. Shares have consolidated, briefly breaking higher on Dec. 9 and Dec. 24, but pulling back quickly.
Please follow Ed Carson on X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson and Threads at @edcarson1971 for stock market updates and more.
