Australia advises citizens to reconsider travel plans to Saudi Arabia.

After an early dip Hong Kong stocks recovered; Hang Seng Index (HSI) was up 0.16% at midday and the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 1.61%. New-consumer names outperformed—Miniso (09896.HK) +5%, 00325.HK +4%—while EVs and related stocks strengthened: Xiaomi Group (01810.HK) +5%, NIO-SW (09866.HK) +4%. Internet leaders were active—Meituan (03690.HK) +4%, Alibaba (09988.HK) +3%. Artificial intelligence, power, oil, food, agriculture and PCB sectors were among top gainers; innovative drugs, OLED, mainland banks, nonferrous metals, chips and optical-communications underperformed. Duiba (01753.HK) surged ~43% after saying its AI short-drama business is expected to produce net profit in July, August and September 2026 consecutively.

At end-September total deposits (RMB and FX) were 357.52 tln yuan, up 7.6% YoY; RMB deposits were 349.45 tln yuan, up 7.5% YoY. In Jan–Sep RMB deposits rose 20.76 tln yuan: household deposits +9.39 tln, non-financial corporate deposits +3.16 tln, fiscal deposits +1.63 tln, non-bank financial institutions +4.41 tln. At end-September foreign-currency deposits were $1.20 tln, up 17.7% YoY; FX deposits increased $139.4 bln in Jan–Sep.