(March 16): BYD Co shares surged Monday, leading Chinese electric-vehicle stocks higher, with investor sentiment boosted by signs of an improving overseas sales outlook.
The Chinese EV leader’s Hong Kong-listed stock jumped 7.8%, the most in 13 months. It was the top performer on the Hang Seng Tech Index, followed by peers Nio Inc and Xiaomi Corp, which climbed around 5%.
Sentiment is getting a lift from local Chinese news reports that BYD’s Brazil plant received an export order for about 100,000 units from Argentina and Mexico, said Eugene Hsiao, a strategist at Macquarie Capital Limited.
“This is positive for the broader BYD thesis, which is that overseas sales will become the core growth and profit driver over time,” he said.
A Shenzhen-based BYD representative didn’t respond to a Bloomberg request for comment.
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Overseas sales are playing an increasingly important role for the Shenzhen-based automaker, which has been losing ground in its home market as local competition gets tougher. BYD’s overall sales for the first two months of the year fell 36% to 400,241 units, although exports gained momentum and the company now aims to sell 1.3 million cars abroad in 2026.
The stronger pricing action in Chinese EV and battery stocks is also driven by expectations of stronger adoption of new energy vehicles given higher oil prices, according to a trader desk note by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Lower lithium prices are also seen as a tailwind.
Chinese battery makers also climbed on Monday, with sector leader Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd’s Hong Kong-listed shares up 7.9%. Eve Energy Co shares increased more than 2% in Shenzhen.
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“A higher gas price would potentially drive demand in European market, which would benefit Chinese automakers that export to that market such as BYD,” said Vincent Sun, an analyst at Morningstar. “For Chinese market, gas bill is not as big a driver to EV demand as in overseas market.”
Stella Li, the company’s executive vice president, said at an event in Brazil last week that Argentina and Mexico each ordered 50,000 cars from the plant, according to IT Home. The plant, in northeastern Brazil, has an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles and will be gradually expanded in phases to 600,000, it said.
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