China Region Indexes Gain; Exports and Trade Surplus Rise

Chandrasekhar Atreya
13 Oct, 2010
New York City

Stocks in China region rose after mainland China exports surged and foreign exchange reserves reached a record in September. China regulator vows to stop speculative money inflows. Hong Kong proposes to increase land supply for projects.

[R]5:00 PM Hong Kong, China – Stocks in China region rose after mainland China exports surged and foreign exchange reserves reached a record in September. China regulator vows to stop speculative money inflows. Hong Kong proposes to increase land supply for projects.[/R]

Stocks in Mainland China rose pushing the benchmark index higher for the fifth day in a row on strong September exports and rising forex reserves.

Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained 1.45% or 335.99 to close at 23,457.69 and the CSI 300 Index in Mainland China added 1.41% or 44.85 to close at 3,217.58.

Exports increased 25.1% in September from a year earlier to $144.99 billion, but the pace of growth slowed from August’s 34.4% surge, China’s General Administration of Custom said Wednesday.

The country’s imports rose 24.1% from a year ago to reach $128.11 billion in September, with the growth rate down 11.1% from that in August. The country’s trade surplus for the first nine months of the year totaled $120.6 billion, down 10.5% from the same period a year earlier, the Custom Administration said.

China’s foreign exchange reserves surged to a record to $2.65 trillion by the end of September. Currency holdings rose about $194 billion in the third quarter, today’s statement from the People’s Bank of China showed.

China is likely to become the world’s largest producer of wind power by the end of this year and may still need more than 200 billion yuan of investment each year to reach its target.

Rents of grade A offices in Shanghai’s Puxi rose at the fastest pace in more than two years in the third quarter of 2010 amid strong demand to expand and upgrade from multinational companies.

Average rents for these offices in Puxi jumped 6.6% to 210 yuan per square meter a month in the July-September period, the fastest quarterly growth registered since early 2008, Jones Lang LaSalle said today.

Shanghai will develop its onshore yuan market to bolster its position as a global financial hub, authorities said Tuesday.

“Shanghai will further build up its onshore yuan market, expand more channels to expand the use of the currency overseas and attract more overseas players to join the local currency market,” the Shanghai Financial Services Office said Tuesday.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said Tuesday it will continue to stop inflows of speculative money into the country and crack down on illegal foreign exchange activities.

That stance was stressed once again in a report released yesterday by the SAFE, which said hot money inflows into China are a long-term and complicated issue.

Consumer confidence in Shanghai’s economy climbed in the third quarter of this year over the previous quarter, as people expressed optimism that stimulus policies would continue and for a successful transformation of the city’s economic structure, a survey showed Tuesday.

The Consumer Confidence Index rose to 106.7 points between July and September, up 1.5 points from a quarter earlier, but still 2.7 points lower than a year ago, according to the quarterly survey by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Great Wall Motor and Lifan Industry Group plan to sell shares in Shanghai as they joine Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co and BYD in seeking funds to increase capacity and boost sales in the world’s largest vehicle market.

Great Wall will sell no more than 122 million yuan-denominated A shares, about 10% of its enlarged capital base, its Hong Kong listed unit said in a statement to the stock exchange.

Hong Kong would increase land supply in response to market demand as property prices soared in the past year, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Donald Tsang said Wednesday.

“Housing is currently the greatest concern of our people,” Tsang said in his annual policy address at the city’s 60-member Legislative Council, which was broadcast live to the city nation.

Taobao, the country’s largest e-commerce platform, launched a search engine called Etao targeted at online shoppers.

The search engine products provides search results for product listings on Taobao as well as reviews of consumer electronics on their Web sites in cooperation with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Fancy cut diamonds, such as pear-shaped products, are going deeper into Chinese pockets on rising demand for bigger and fancy gems, QBT Diamonds said Tuesday.

Demand for diamonds is picking up in China amid the growing economy. Diamonds imports rose to a record $577 million at the Shanghai Diamond Exchange in the first half of the year as strong consumer demand and stable economic growth secured the country’s position as the world’s second largest market for the glittering stone.