Shanghai Surges 3%; New Property Curbs

123jump.com Staff
08 Oct, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Shanghai rallied to a 4-month high after a long holiday period. The stocks were supported after manufacturing and services expanded at a faster pace in September. Shanghai introduces one house per family policy like in Beijing, to curb property speculations.

[R]5:00 PM Hong Kong, China – Stocks in Shanghai rallied to a 4-month high after a long holiday period. The stocks were supported after manufacturing and services expanded at a faster pace in September. Shanghai introduces one house per family policy like in Beijing, to curb property speculations.[/R]

Shanghai’s key stock index jumped to a 4-month high in the morning session driven by stronger domestic industrial production and global rallies during the National holiday week. The Moody’s rating review also boosted investor sentiments.

The CSI 300 Index in China surged 3.7% or 108.66 to close at 3,044.23. Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 0.26% or 59.86 to close at 22,944.18.

U.S Treasury Secretary on Thursday ahead of an IMF meeting in Washington called for a forceful global mechanism that has the power to push countries that run trade surpluses, like China, to revalue their currency and abandon export-oriented policies.

Shanghai may soon introduce a long-debated property tax as early as this month, a move meant to curb real estate speculation and finally bring down rocketing prices, local media reports said Thursday.

In an effort to curb property prices, Shanghai joined Beijing in capping the number of homes a family can purchase, a policy that’s been in effect in the capital city since May.

According to a government circular issued Thursday evening, a family is entitled to buy only one home in the city for a certain period of time. The policy applies to both new and existing houses, the circular said.

Most visitors to the annual Shanghai Autumn Real Estate Exhibition, which opened on Sunday, chose to stay on the sidelines, amid expectations that home prices may fall if a detailed tax policy on residential properties is introduced.

China’s non-manufacturing industries expanded at a faster pace in September, after the manufacturing index hit a four-month high in the month, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Monday.

The purchasing manager’s index in the non-manufacturing sector increased to 61.7 from 60.1 in August, the federation said.

The number of vehicles recalled by Chinese automakers totaled 3.94 million over the past six years, an average of 1,800 units per day, according to a senior official of the country’s quality supervision administration.

Chen Fei, Director of the Defective Products Management Center with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, attributed the large number of recalls to the regulations on defective auto products that took effect from October 1, 2004.

China’s holding of South Korean government bonds almost tripled in the first nine months of this year as policy makers of China shift part of their reserves out of dollars.

The amount of Korean Treasury Bonds owned by China totaled 5.15 trillion won at the end of September, 175% more than at the start of this year, according to data released by South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service. Chinese holdings of U.S. treasuries fell by 5.4% in the first seven months of 2010 to $846.7 billion, U.S. data show.

Sun Hung Kai Properties and Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd, the two largest developers of Hong Kong, sold more than HK$11 billion worth of new properties over the National Day holiday weekend.

Sun Hung Kai sold 132 houses at its Valais project in the Sheung Shui district over the three-day holiday period, and Cheung Kong sold all 1,143 apartments at Oceanaire in the Ma On Shan district.

Representatives from about 200 nations started a meeting on Monday in China to narrow differences on climate change and grapple with extreme weather such as rising temperatures and melting of polar icecaps.

“It is vital that progress is made in Tianjin on two main areas, new public money for developing countries and rich countries agreeing to tough new emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol,” said the international environment organization, Friends of the Earth.

Sinopec Group, as China’s second-largest energy company is known, agreed to pay a 76% premium for a 40% stake in Madrid-based Repsol’s unit in Brazil, as it switches its hunt for oil reserves to Latin America from Africa.

This offer amounts to $15 a barrel compared with a $8.50 Petroleo Brasileiro SA paid last month for assets in Brazil.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pumped in $5 billion into the Greek shipping sector as China doles out aid to the nation to widen its global influence.

He also assured Greece that China will continue to buy Greek government bonds. That assurance and the $5.14 billion aid for the shipping sector represent some of China’s most substantive support for the euro zone amid the region’s debt problems.

A new highway linking China and Mongolia is expected to be built jointly by the two countries with a total investment of 2.51 billion yuan for transportation of coal, local authorities said Wednesday.

The new highway is planned to be 245 kilometers long and will run from Mongolia’s southwest Omnogovi Aymang Province to Ganqimaodu, a border town in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said a regional government official.