HKEX to list 12 stock options on November 9, with weekly and monthly options launching the same day.

HKEX will add 12 new stock option classes on November 9, offering both weekly and monthly expiry contracts from the first day of listing. With this batch, the number of underlying stocks and ETFs for HKEX weekly stock options rises to 66 listed companies and ETFs. In the first nine months of this year, average daily turnover of HK stock options was 899,056 contracts, up 1.4% from the same period last year and a record high for the period. Weekly options, launched only in November 2024, have accumulated turnover exceeding 51 million contracts, accounting for about 20% of turnover in the related products. HKEX Group Chief Executive Bonnie Chan, in an October 12 CEO blog post, said 38 weekly stock options have been added since the start of the year, with these 12 more in November, and more short-duration products and thematic futures and options will follow. All 12 are new classes with no prior options None of these 12 underlying stocks previously had options at HKEX, so they are entirely new option classes, not a weekly option tacked onto someone's monthly option. HKEX has assigned them two new market codes: 143 for monthly expiry and 145 for weekly expiry. By underlying stock, chips and tech hardware account for half: ASMPT (00522), GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (03986), BIREN TECH (06082), Cig Shanghai (06166), Montage Technology (06809), and ILUVATAR COREX (09903). There are two innovative drug stocks, HANSOH PHARMA (03692) and SKB BIO (06990). Three are materials and gold: KINGBOARD HLDG (00148), KB LAMINATES (01888), and CHINAGOLDINTL (02099). There is also one ETF, CSOP Hang Seng TECH Index ETF (03033). Contract sizes vary considerably: CSOP Hang Seng TECH Index ETF is 4,000 shares per board lot, HANSOH PHARMA 2,000 shares, BIREN TECH 1,000 shares, ASMPT and ILUVATAR COREX 200 shares each, Cig Shanghai 250 shares, and the rest range between 100 and 500 shares: HKEX does not pick underlyings by market cap. The first batch of ten weekly options in November 2024 covered big blue chips such as Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, and HSBC, targeting liquidity. The 38 added so far this year clearly lean toward thematic stocks. Of these 12, six are in the AI computing power chain, two are the main players in this year's innovative drug overseas licensing deals, and three track gold prices. The reason for choosing them is simple: the underlying stocks must be volatile enough. Options are a two-sided quote business; for a stock that barely moves all day, no one will be willing to quote once options are listed. Weekly options don't only live for one week Weekly options are most easily misunderstood as short-term products that "expire after a week." In fact, "weekly" refers to expiry frequency, not product lifespan. A new weekly contract is generally listed on the Monday of the current week and expires on the Friday of the following week, with both the current-week and next-week series listed at the same time. On the first day, November 9, what can be bought are the two expiry dates of November 13 and November 20. When the November 13 series expires, the November 20 series rolls up to become the current week, and a new next-week contract is listed the same day, rolling forward week after week. As long as the stock remains on the list, the product remains tradable. On the monthly contract side, expiry months extend to November 2026, December 2026, and January 2027, February 2027, March 2027, June 2027, and September 2027. It is not every month, but near months plus quarterly months, with the furthest out to September next year. One detail is easy to miss: if a given week's weekly option expiry coincides with a monthly option expiry, that weekly series is not listed. The two types of contracts will never have expiries falling on the same day. Division of labor between the two contract types HKEX describes weekly options as "not replacing monthly options, but providing investors with a more flexible choice when deployment timing is particularly important." In practice, the difference comes down to two things: how long the coverage lasts and how much it costs. If you only want to cover a single event, such as a certain innovative drug stock announcing clinical data next Wednesday, buying a weekly option is appropriate; once the event passes, the exposure ends naturally, and you don't have to manage a monthly option with three weeks of time value left. Conversely, to protect a stock position you plan to hold into the first quarter of next year, using weekly options would require rolling every week, and the option premiums added up over a dozen or so rolls may not be cheaper than a single quarterly contract.