Nvidia tops ELI issuances’ underlying exposure; ELIs' outstanding notional crosses HK$81 billion by the end of March.
The average daily turnover for listed structured products in Hong Kong SAR slid one percent to HK$21.4 billion (US$2.7 billion) in March compared with last year’s same period, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX)’s monthly statistics report shows.
The latest turnover figure reflected a three percent rise on a monthly basis.
Derivative warrants (DWs)’ average daily turnover dropped 29% year-on-year (YoY) to HK$7.1 billion, while callable bull/bear contracts (CBBCs)’ pulled 23% higher to HK$14.4 billion in March, according to HKEX’s data.
DWs’ listing surpassed 1,200 in March, up from some 800 in the prior year’s period, while CBBCs’ listings reached over 3,300, down from some 3,900 a year ago, SRP data shows.
Hong Kong SAR: listed structured product monthly listings – March 2024 to March 2026
Source: SRP
In the unlisted market, over 6,700 equity-linked investments (ELIs) and 2,300 structured deposits were issued and sold to the city’s retail investors during the month.
Underlyings, payoffs
Alibaba (H Shares) and Tencent led the pack as the most-used assets for DWs listed in March, recording 74 and 72 products, respectively.
The latter Chinese tech blue-chip name was also the most-traded stock underlying for DWs in March, with an average daily turnover of HK$918m, HKEX’s data shows. It was up 15% from the prior month but dropped 40% year-on-year.
Around 78% of these Tencent-linked products’ turnover in March was calls.
Alibaba-linked DWs’ turnover followed closely, recording HK$810.2m on an average daily basis in March.
Hong Kong SAR: top 11 underlyings used in DWs in March 2026
Source: SRP
Silver-linked warrants debuted in March, with Société Générale issuing three tranches comprising two call warrants and one put warrant..
The month also saw 42 listings of Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL)-linked warrants by 12 issuers – 25 of these products were structured as calls, while the remaining 17 were puts. Structured product listing momentum continued after the world's largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer went public in Hong Kong SAR last May, the same day a flurry of issuers debuted such underlying-linked products.
Other Chinese blue-chip names, such as Meituan (44 products), Xiaomi (37) and Pop Mart International Group (H Shares) (31), were among the popular underlyings for DWs during the month.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index continued to be the frontrunner by DWs’ turnover, recording near HK$1.26 billion (US$161 million) on an average daily basis in March, according to HKEX’s data.
This was also seen for CBBCs, another type of leveraged structured product with a built-in knock-out mechanism, whose trading price is unresponsive to implied volatility, unlike DWs, which are sensitive to implied volatility.
CBBCs linked to the Hang Seng Index saw an average daily turnover of HK$13.7 billion in March, up 29% YoY and 12% month-on-month, HKEX’s data shows.
Over 65% of CBBC listings in March tracked the Hong Kong’s benchmark index, or over 2,200 products. Over 1,100 of which were bull products, while the remaining 1,000 were bear structures.
This is followed by other Chinese household names, including Tencent (217), Alibaba (164) and Xiaomi (91).
For unlisted products, ELIs’ top-used underlying continued to be led by Nvidia in March, seeing 2,740 issuances. Over 55% of the issuances were single stock structures, structuring as either autocallable reverse convertibles or autocallable barrier reverse convertibles.
The remaining 45% of these issuances were in a basket of stocks alongside other tech names like Micron Technology, Alphabet, and Broadcom.
Alibaba (H Shares) and HSBC (H Shares) were next in line, gathering 1,205 and 809 issuances, respectively.
The latest development came as the outstanding notional of the city’s ELIs reached near HK$81.7 billion by the end of March, surging 86% YoY, according to the Securities and Futures Commission’s data. ELIs’ latest outstanding also reflected an eight percent jump from the prior month.
Hong Kong SAR: ELI’s net notional amount in outstanding (HK$ billion)
Source: Securities and Futures Commission
Meanwhile, issuance of structured deposits continued to be dominated by FX rates, topped by the AUD/USD pair with 895 issuances in March. This was followed by the GBP/USD and USD/CAD pairs at 309 and 262 products, respectively.
By the end of March, the outstanding balance for structured deposits rebounded to HK$1 billion after dropping below the HK$1 billion benchmark since last December, data from the Securities and Futures Commission shows. The latest outstanding was also seven percent increase from last year’s same period.
Issuers
J.P. Morgan, UBS and Morgan Stanley topped the league table as the largest DW issuers in March by number of products, listing 162, 123, and 114 products, respectively.
The Swiss issuer also led the listing for CBBCs, with 632 listings during the month. Société Générale and J.P. Morgan were next in line, recording 530 and 481 listings, respectively.
Hong Kong SAR: top 5 DW and CBBC issuers by number of issuances in March 2026
| DWs | Product listings | CBBCs | Product listings |
| J.P. Morgan | 162 | UBS | 632 |
| UBS | 123 | Société Générale | 530 |
| Morgan Stanley | 114 | J.P. Morgan | 481 |
| Citic Securities Brokerage Hong Kong | 104 | HSBC Bank | 391 |
| Société Générale | 103 | BNP Paribas | 342 |
Source: SRP
HSBC Bank continued to lead both ELI and structured deposit issuance fronts with near 5,000 and 975 issuances, respectively, during the month.
Looking ahead
Over 4,300 ELIs and 2,300 structured deposits are set to reach maturity in April, SRP data shows.
The Securities and Futures Commission also unveiled a regulatory framework to pilot secondary trading of tokenised investment products this week. The regulator noted that the framework is focused primarily on enabling secondary trading of tokenised open-ended funds on virtual asset trading platforms.
Image: Maridav/Adobe Stock
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