China Region Indexes Gain; Hong Kong Retail Sales Jumps 21.6%

Chandrasekhar Atreya
01 Dec, 2010
New York City

Indexes in Shanghai and Hong Kong closed higher after the manufacturing expanded. Shanghai real estate volumes surged 50% from a year ago but prices were flat. October retail sales in Hong Kong soared 22% from a year earlier.

[R]5:00 PM Hong Kong, China – Indexes in Shanghai and Hong Kong closed higher after the manufacturing expanded. Shanghai real estate volumes surged 50% from a year ago but prices were flat. October retail sales in Hong Kong soared 22% from a year earlier.[/R]

Stocks in Shanghai closed higher after falling for four days in a row. Rising property prices and resurgent inflation has worried investors but the latest manufacturing index showed a robust expansion.

The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.12% or 3.27 to close at 2,823.45. The CSI 300 Index edged lower 0.96 to close at 3,136.02.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained 1.05% or 241.81 to close at 23,249.80.

The official Purchasing Manager’s Index, a comprehensive gauge of industrial activities in China, increased 0.5% from a month earlier to 55.2 in November, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today.

Shanghai’s real estate transactions volumes for the last week posted a 50% jump, an industry report showed.

A total of 321,000 square meters of homes were transacted last week at an average price that was almost unchanged from the week before of 23,008 yuan, real estate Web site Soufun.com said in the report.

Officials of diamond industry in China upgraded their forecasts of imports and exports this year on a strong domestic market.

The trade value is expected to rise to $2.8 billion in 2010, up 90% from a year ago, said Li Mu, Deputy Director of the Diamond Administration of China, at the China Diamond Conference held in Shanghai on Tuesday.

There is no need to implement any further price controls to curb inflation because the current measures are effective, a top planning body said on Tuesday.

In a statement on its Web site, the National Development and Reform Commission suggested the existing steps had been sufficient and added that any further price controls, if implemented, would be temporary.

China’s Consumer Price Index is likely to accelerate from 4.4% in October to 4.7% in November, according to a report of Bank of Communications released on Tuesday.

Rising food prices are a leading contributor to the inflation but prices are expected to decline since mid-November as the government put in place a number of anti-inflation measures, the report said.

The value of total October retail sales in Hong Kong was estimated provisionally to be at HK$27.8 billion, 21.6% higher than a year earlier, the Census and Statistics Department said on Tuesday.

A government spokesman said that sustained robust sales of big ticket items and consumer discretion items reflected the firm consumer sentiment and vibrant tourist spending.

Stock Movers

Real Estate developers gained as home prices in 100 cities in China rose 0.8% in November from a month earlier.

China Vanke, the largest mainland developer, added 1.1% to 8.22 yuan and Poly Real Estate Group, the second largest, increased 0.9% to 12.23 yuan.

Habin Pharmaceutical dropped 1.8% to 24.47 yuan and Shanghai Fosun dropped 2.2% to 14.20 yuan on the worries that the recent government price cuts will affect earnings.

Petroleum & Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, dropped 0.6% to 8.08 yuan.

Gold miners gained after bullion prices rebounded to above $1,390 per ounce.

Shandong Gold Mining Group Co gained 1.1% to 54.01 yuan. Zhongjin Gold Co added 1.3% to 39.28 yuan.

Huaneng Power, the largest electricity producer of China, added 1.2% to 5.89 yuan and China Yangtze Power Co, the largest hydro dam operator of China, gained 1.9% to 7.71 yuan.