File Photo/NBD

During the morning session on April 17th, China Mobile (600941. SH) rose more than 4%, with its market value surpassing that of Kweichow Moutai (600519. SH), ranking first in the A-share market.

Prior to China Mobile, China Petroleum, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Kweichou Moutai had taken turns to become the A-share market value leader. 

Following a 25% increase throughout 2022, the stock price of China Mobile has risen by 50.73% since the beginning of 2023. 

It is noticed that the recent hype around concepts such as ChatGPT and cloud computing had pushed the stock prices of the three major telecom operators, including China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, one step further. 

Telecom analyst Fu Liang told Yicai that the impact of short-term concept hype on China Mobile's valuation is limited.

"The main factor is still the return of the company's basic value in A-shares after delisting from Hong Kong stocks." An insider from China Telecom told reporters that the operation of the company's digital business, excluding the impact of recent concept speculation, is the key factor supporting the company's valuation recovery.

A securities department official from China Unicom made a similar statement when evaluating the rise in telecom operator stock prices. According to China Mobile's 2022 annual report, the company's mobile cloud revenue for the year was 50.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108.1%. 

The latest data from IDC shows that in the mobile cloud public cloud (laaS+PaaS) service market, China Mobile's market share currently ranks sixth. Previously, China Mobile released positive 2022 annual report data and announced a commitment to increase dividends. The company stated that in 2023, China Mobile's profit distributed in cash will increase to more than 70% of the company's shareholders' profit for that year.