Tencent’s Market Value Passes $300 Billion After Market Rally

Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s market capitalization passed the $300 billion mark for the first time Tuesday morning, after rising for eight consecutive trading days.

The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed at a day’s high of HK$248.40 ($31.9), with Tencent’s market value at HK$2.35 trillion or $302 billion.

Tencent passed the $300 billion milestone less than a month after it became the world’s 10th-most-valuable company, wresting the position from U.S. bank Wells Fargo & Co. Tencent’s market value was $279 billion when it reached 10th place on April 5, Bloomberg reported.

Today’s record high comes amid a recent wave of good news for the Shenzhen-based company. Investment banks have been optimistic about Tencent in the past few weeks, giving the shares a “buy” rating ahead of the company’s first quarterly financial report of the year. Tencent is expected to release the report on May 7.

Analysts expect Tencent’s upward run to continue. In late April, Citibank and Goldman Sachs set price targets for Tencent shares of HK$262 and HK$267 per share respectively.

Tencent is set to launch its first virtual reality headset in the second half of 2017, the Financial Times reported Sunday. The company also announced in a press release Tuesday that it will be opening an artificial intelligence lab in Seattle, managed by former Microsoft researcher Yu Dong.

Major rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. came closest to breaking the $300 billion barrier in recent weeks on April 24, when its NYSE-listed shares closed at $114.86 giving it a market capitalization of $286.6 billion. Alibaba’s market value briefly exceeded $300 billion in 2014, during its first Singles’ Day shopping festival as a listed company.