Retail Sales in China Surge 22%

123jump.com Staff
13 Nov, 2008
New York City

Industrial production in China rose at a slower pace of 8.2% in October and retail sales surged 22% in the month. Electricity output fell 4% and passenger cars production declined 6.2% in the month. Hong Kong Exchange quarterly net declined 43%.

[R]6:00AM New York, 6:00PM Hong Kong - Industrial production in china rose 8.2% in October. Retail sales in October rose 22% matching the rise for the first ten months sales. Hong Kong stock exchange operator’s quarterly profit drops 43%.[/R]

In Hong Kong trading Hang Seng Index fell 5.1% or 717.74 to 13,221.35, and the China Enterprises of Hong Kong listed mainland shares, or H shares, declined 4.8% or 338.96 to 6,795.58. In Shanghai trading CSI 300 Index rose 4% or 72.26 to 1,874.08.

Daily turnover on main board increased to HK$51.8 billion from HK$47.2 billion yesterday.

Industrial Output Soars 14.4% in October

The National Bureau of Statistics reported today that China’s industrial enterprises that have annual sales of Rmb5 million recorded value-added output growth of 14.4% in the first 10 months of the year.

However the increase is 0.8 percentage points lower than the 15.2% in the January-September and 4.1% percentage points down from 18.5% realized in the same period a year earlier.

Sales against output ratio for enterprises declined 0.78 percentage points from a year ago to 97.4%.

In October, the cumulative value-added output rose 8.2%, lower by 9.7 percentage points in the month a year ago period.

Value-added output soared 7.8% for the textile sector, 2.7% for the raw chemical materials and chemical products sector, 13.8% for the non-metal mineral sector, 11.9% for equipment manufacturers, 10.9% for transport equipment makers, 13.9% for electric machinery sector, and 6.9% for telecom equipment, computer and electronic equipment manufacturers.

Throughput of raw coal rose 9.2% to 220 million tons in October, while crude oil increased 3.9% to 16.35 million tons.

Cement production gained 1.1% to 120 million tons.

In addition the total number of vehicles produced in October fell 0.7% to 730,000 and passenger car production fell 6.2% to 417,000.

Retail Sales Rise

China’s retail sales in October surged 22% to 1,008.3 billion yuan and sales in the urban region rose 21.9% 683.3 billion and in the rural regions were 324.9 billion or up 21.9%.

For the first ten months of the year retail sales jumped 22% to 8,796.8 billion yuan.

Yuan Loans Rise in October

Xinhua News Agency reported today that the Peoples’ Bank of China announced yesterday that outstanding loans rose 14.6% to Rmb29.83 trillion by the end of October.

Loans rose by Rmb45.7 billion from a year ago to Rmb181.9 billion as the apex bank increased the 2008 credit quota to 5% for national commercial banks and 10% for local commercial banks.

Mortgages fell Rmb64.2 billion from a year ago to Rmb4 billion in October.

Gainers & Losers

Hong Kong stocks fell 5% after the bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing’s reported a quarterly loss of 43% in the three months to September.

BNP Paribas also cut the company’s earnings estimate by 9% for 2008 and 3% to 12% for 2009.

Deteriorating earnings and outlook conditions in the U.S further unnerved investors.

Realty stocks plunged on speculation that Hong Kong might have slid into a recession in the third quarter. Sun Hung Kai Properties declined 6.4%.

HSBC dropped 6% after U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s comments that that $700 billion bailout package will not be use solely to buy bad debts from lenders sparked market jitters in the financial sector. Secretary Paulson appears to be struggling with the market events and appear to trail the developments.

CITIC Pacific rose 9.2% after its parent said it will take over some of its liabilities from its unauthorized foreign currency contracts and purchase convertible bonds worth HK$1.5 billion from the firm.

Financial stocks declined. Bank of Communications fell 5.4% and Bank of China shed 4.6%.

Energy stocks declined as crude oil prices fell 5.3% to $56.16 per barrel. PetroChina slid 6.4% and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tumbled 10.5%.