Macau gaming stocks jumped by as much as 15% on Monday following the news that mainland China will reinstate both package tours to Macau and eVisas under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS).
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced Saturday that China would reinstate both travel options from November after they were suspended in January 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. IVS accounted for almost 50% of mainland Chinese visitors to Macau in 2019 of which most utilized eVisas, while package tours brought in around 25% of mainlanders.
In response to the news, which is seen as a significant step forward in Macau’s recovery from the economic impact of the pandemic, the stock prices of all six Hong Kong listed entities of Macau’s concessionaires showed significant increases on Monday morning – led by Sands China.
Sands China’s shares jumped by 15.6% upon market open, from a price of HK$17.64 at Friday close to HK$20.40.
SJM Holdings also saw an 11.6% increase from HK$2.68 to HK$2.99, with both the SJM and Sands share prices holding steady throughout the day.
MGM China shares jumped 8.8% to HK$4.45 before closing at HK$4.28, Galaxy Entertainment Group by 8.7% to HK$47.70 before closing at HK$47.05 and Melco International Development by 7.0% to HK$6.10 before closing at HK$6.00.
Wynn Macau enjoyed a 7.2% increase at open, climbing from HK$4.61 to HK$4.94, and grew even further to HK$5.12 by Monday close – up 11.1% on its Friday closing price.
Ho said Saturday that the first phase of resumption would see a reopening for four provinces and one city in Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian.
