HONG KONG - Chinese tech stocks resumed their bullish rally on Friday to register their best winning streak in over two years, driven by DeepSeek's AI breakthrough, which reignited investor interest in China's technology capabilities.

The Hang Seng Tech Index jumped 5.6% to a three-year high at close, bringing the week's advance to 7.3%. That made a fifth consecutive week of gains, the best winning run since China's post-COVID trade reopening started in late 2022.

The rally gained more momentum during the afternoon trading session after a Reuters report that Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to chair a symposium attended by Jack Ma and other Chinese business leaders to boost private sector sentiment.

Alibaba closed up 6.3% at a three-year high on Friday. Its shares have surged 24% this week, the biggest gain since its public debut in the city in 2019.

Xiaomi surged 7.3% to a record high on the symposium news, while Tencent jumped 7.4%, its best single-day gain in two years.

The Hang Seng Index tracking the broader market in Hong Kong advanced 3.7% to near its October high.

Mainland stocks also edged up, with the blue-chip CSI300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.9% and 0.4% respectively.

"Global investors are starting to reassess China's investibility within the tech and AI space, after an extended period of limited attention, which could still lead to a recovery of positioning with thorough fundamental research done at the individual company level," Morgan Stanley strategists including Laura Wang said in a note on Friday.

The launch of DeepSeek's high-performing and inexpensive large language model has sparked a strong inflow into AI-related stocks since the Lunar New Year, driving a revaluation in the sector.

The Hang Seng Tech Index has surged more than 60% since the September trough, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index has advanced 12.7% this year to rank as the best performer in Asia's major markets after years of lagging.

Hedge funds have been snapping up Hong Kong's tech shares for the past two weeks, and some long-only investors, mainly Asian funds, have also started to add positions to chase the rally, according to Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB Kay Hian in Hong Kong.

Short-term momentum could stay for a bit longer on consistent news flow from DeepSeek, Alibaba and Baidu with new AI applications, he said.

The fact that U.S. President Donald Trump did not impose reciprocal tariffs immediately eased concerns of a global trade war for now.

Around the region, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.37%, hovering near the two-month high it touched on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8% but was on track to eke out gains for the week.

(Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Sonali Paul and Kevin Liffey)