Shanghai Stocks Soar to 6-month High

Chandrasekhar Atreya
25 Oct, 2010
New York City

Stocks in China soared to a six month high on earning and profit outlook as well as commodity prices. Hong Kong stocks push the benchmark higher despite SGX offer to acquire ASX. AIA, the Asian insurance arm of AIG completed the public offering to raise $17.9 billion in Hong Kong.

[R]5:00 PM Hong Kong, China – Stocks in China soared to a six month high on earning and profit outlook as well as commodity prices. Hong Kong stocks push the benchmark higher despite SGX offer to acquire ASX. AIA, the Asian insurance arm of AIG completed the public offering to raise $17.9 billion in Hong Kong.[/R]

Mainland China benchmark index to a six-month high on corporate earnings and commodity prices. Hong Kong stocks also traded higher on rising fund flows and optimistic outlook on earnings and a pipeline of new stock offerings.

The CSI 300 Index in China soared 3.03% or 102.43 to close at 3,481.08. Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 0.47% or 110.37 to close at 23,627.91.

Vice Premier Wang Qishan of China and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met on Sunday amid currency tensions after a weekend pledge by G-20 finance ministers to rebalance the global economy.

Wang and Geithner exchanged views on China-U.S economic relations at an airport in the eastern city of Qingdao in China.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said after he met the Chinese Vice Premier that he expects China will allow the yuan to strengthen.

An official of the government of China called on the think tanks to readjust the nation’s breakneck expansion of the auto industry as an explosion of new cars on China’s roads aggravates the problems of pollution and congestion.

Liu Shijin, Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told a forum that China should shift it policy from mere pursuit of output capacity to pursuit of environment-friendly and energy-saving targets.

AIA, the Asian life insurance arm of AIG, raised $17.9 billion in Hong Kong IPO by pricing the shares at the top range of filing range.

AIG plans to use some of the proceeds to pay back part of the $182.3 billion bailout it received from the U.S. government and Federal Reserve during the height of the financial crisis. AIA is scheduled to start trading on Friday.

China became the third largest market for Volvo, after it was acquired by China car maker Geely, state media reported Saturday.

Alexander Klose, head of Volvo Cars China, made the comments at a trade show in the northern city of Tianjin, according to the official Xinhua news agency. He said sales of the Swedish brand’s vehicles have soared in China in the year 2010.

Baidu Inc, China’s largest search engine company, more than doubled its profits in the third quarter and also predicted fourth quarter revenues are ahead of consensus estimate.

Net income for the quarter ended September soared 112% from a year ago period, to $156.4 million, the company said in a statement on last Friday.

Mainland companies of China accounted for four-fifths of the total $46.39 billion raised in IPOs on major global stock markets in the third quarter, according to Zero2IPO Research Center.

Proceeds from IPOs in the July-September period surged 28.3% from a year earlier, according to the firm’s survey. The research showed that 165 companies held their initial share offerings of which 109 Chinese mainland companies raised a combined $36.96 billion in that quarter including the dual listing of the Agricultural Bank of China in July.

Green energy and mobile internet companies have become the fastest growing high-tech sectors in China.

According to a report from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu released Friday, five firms from these two sectors led the list of 50 of the top high tech firms in China.

The top five firms listed were China United Cleaning Technical Co, maker of solar cells, China Guodian Corp, the wind power group, AdChina.com, Beijing LOIT Technology Co and 360buy.com.

Shanghai World Expo, the six-month long exhibition had 70 million visitors as it enters its final week, beating the previous record of 64 million people visiting the Osaka World Expo of Japan in 1970.