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Surge in Chinese tech stocks captures analysts'

imagination

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Catchy monikers rival 'Magnificent Seven' in the US

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AI startup DeepSeek fuels buzz around technology companies

By Tom Westbrook and Samuel Shen

SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Six Little

Dragons, Seven Sisters and the Terrific Ten. These are some of

the nicknames being bestowed on China's cast of home-grown

heroes as they take on the U.S. tech goliaths, known as the

Magnificent Seven.

In a rivalry of comic-book proportions, a surge in Chinese

tech stocks has inspired brokerages to dream up catchy monikers

to fire the imagination of retail investors.

Technology stocks are soaring in Hong Kong thanks to buzz

around AI startup DeepSeek and a meeting between President Xi

Jinping and tech business leaders including Alibaba founder Jack

Ma, which has been seen as a sign of implicit state support.

The rally has vaulted the Hang Seng index near to the

top of the best performing major markets this year and put

leading stocks under the spotlight alongside the "Magnificent

Seven" U.S. giants.

"Seven Sisters are waiting to step out of the attic," said

the headline of a Haitong Securities research note this week.

They will likely emerge in the artificial intelligence,

chip-making and high-end manufacturing sectors, the brokerage

said.

Haitong did not identify the "Seven", but put online giant

Tencent ( TCTZF ), e-commerce firm Alibaba, tech conglomerate

Xiaomi ( XIACF ), and automaker BYD in a list of likely

candidates.

The "Terrific Ten" gained traction last year as the

once-shunned stocks started making a comeback. There is still

conjecture about its membership, though Jeff Weniger, head of

equity strategy at WisdomTree Asset Management, said in a post

on X this week that their performance was "crushing the

Magnificent 7".

His "Ten" are Alibaba and JD.com ( JD ), automakers Geely

and BYD, Xiaomi ( XIACF ), Tencent ( TCTZF ) and NetEase ( NTES )

, Baidu ( BIDU ), Meituan ( MPNGF ) and chipmaker SMIC

.

They have powered the Hang Seng Tech index to an

almost 70% gain over the last 12 months, compared with a 27%

rise for Nasdaq.

The Magnificent Seven consist of Alphabet, Amazon ( AMZN )

, Apple ( AAPL ), Meta, Microsoft ( MSFT ),

Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Tesla, and the term was coined by

Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett in May 2023.

The title refers to the 1960 Western about seven gunslingers

starring Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson.

Andrew Xia, chief economist at Shangshan Capital Group, said

the "Terrific Ten" originated from a collection of 10 novels by

British author David Walliams, and also possibly refers to a

team of Chinese comic book superheroes in the DC Comics

Universe.

Meanwhile, investment bank UBS labels eight AI-driven hot

Chinese stocks "VENUS Eight", and among unlisted companies,

DeepSeek is one of the six "Little Dragon" startups out of the

city of Hangzhou.