HK Stock Market Move | Lithium stocks fell across the board in the morning session, with lithium carbonate futures hitting a four-year high. The market is paying attention to rumors of price manipulation and Goldman Sachs' bearish outlook.

Lithium stocks fell in the morning session, as of press time, Tianqi Lithium Corporation (09696) fell by 4.63%, to 63.9 Hong Kong dollars; Ganfeng Lithium Group (01772) fell by 4.66%, to 84.85 Hong Kong dollars. On the news front, on May 7th, the main contract for lithium carbonate futures hit a new high in 3 years, breaking the 200,000 yuan/ton mark at one point. However, according to 21st Century Business Herald, it was exclusively learned from insiders that before the May Day holiday, a private equity fund organized multiple market participants to form long positions on the main contract for lithium carbonate 2609, "boosting" the price of lithium carbonate futures. The aforementioned insiders analyzed that as the price of lithium carbonate futures climbed to the range of 180,000 to 200,000 yuan/ton, the market exhibited various anomalous characteristics deviating from the industry's fundamentals. It is worth noting that Goldman Sachs holds a conservative attitude towards the rising trend of lithium carbonate prices. The institution believes that Chinese companies' overseas investments may drive oversupply. Goldman Sachs predicts that by the second half of 2026, there will be a significant global oversupply of lithium mines, with the surplus possibly reaching 20% to 22% of global demand. It then predicts that the future price of lithium carbonate will converge towards marginal costs, forecasting that by the end of 2026, the price of lithium carbonate will drop to 65,000 yuan/ton.