By Jiahui Huang


Shares of Tencent surged after a report said that the technology company is preparing to launch an artificial-intelligence agent within WeChat, fueling investor optimism that China's biggest social-media platform could become a major channel for AI commercialization.

Its shares rose 10% to close at 481.60 Hong Kong dollars on Tuesday, equivalent to $61.45, logging their largest one-day gain since November 2022.

The gains followed positive sentiment on Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong's stock market on Tuesday, as well as a Financial Times report that said Tencent has started testing an AI agent on its super app, WeChat. The company could start rolling out the features as soon as this month, the report said. Users might eventually be able to access the agent directly within the app and use it to complete tasks across WeChat's ecosystem.

Investors had largely expected Tencent to release an AI agent for WeChat, but the reported timeline appeared to be sooner than anticipated and likely contributed to the strong share-price reaction, Citi analysts said in a note.

The report is shifting market participants' perception of Tencent to a potential AI winner from a laggard, Morningstar senor equity analyst Ivan Su said.

WeChat's vast Mini Program ecosystem could provide a natural network of services for AI agents to execute tasks, supporting Tencent's broader AI monetization efforts, Citi added.

Tencent has also stepped up its share buybacks over the past 10 days, spending a total of HK$4.5 billion to HK$5 billion, showing that the company is confident in its fundamental outlook and deems its shares to be undervalued, Citi said.

Tencent declined to comment on the Financial Times report.

The benchmark Hang Seng Tech Index rose 4.7%, outperforming the Hang Seng Index's 2.5% gains.


Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-02-26 0438ET