Chalco, Rio Venture in Africa; Orient Loss

Mayank Mehta
19 Mar, 2010
New York City

Indexes in Hong Kong rallied after property developers and resource stocks gained. Chalco surged in HK and in Shanghai trading after the parent agreed to an investment of $1.4 billion in a joint venture with Rio Tinto Plc in an iron ore mine in Guinea. China Eastern gets ready to take 30 new planes.

[R]7:00 AM Hong Kong, China – Indexes in Hong Kong rallied after property developers and resource stocks gained. Chalco surged in HK and in Shanghai trading after the parent agreed to an investment of $1.4 billion in a joint venture with Rio Tinto Plc in an iron ore mine in Guinea. China Eastern gets ready to take 30 new planes.[/R]

Stocks in Hong Kong traded higher as luxury home prices continue to rise and Chalco agreed to invest in a joint venture with Rio Tinto in Africa. Orient Overseas declined nearly 3% after it reported its first loss this decade.

Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 40.15 or 0.19% to 21,370.82, and CSI 300 index in China higher 26.32 or 0.81% to 3,293.87. For the week the composite index in Shanghai increased 1.8%.

Chalco surged 10% in Shaghai to 13.65 yuan after its subsidiary Chinalco signed a joint venture agreement.

Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese said today in a statement the company has entered into a non-binding agreement with Chinese company Chinalco to jointly develop the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

Under the deal, Chinalco will pay $1.35 billion for an initial 47% stake in the project, which is estimated to have 2.5 billion tons of “high quality” iron ore.

Hong Kong luxury home prices surged 8.2% in February from December according to a report released by Centaline Property Agency Ltd. The average sale price of existing homes in March increased to HK$11,823 or $1,523 from HK$10,931 as the article on Bloomberg noted.

Guandong province, the largest Chinese manufacturing region lifted minimum wages 21.1% yesterday as manufacturers face a labor shortage.

The State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission asked 78 government linked companies to withdraw from real estate industry after the current projects are completed and focus on their core business. The news was reported by Reuters and cited the agency spokesperson Du Yuanquan.

Shanghai Movers

Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd rose 0.7% to 8.28 yuan after the company will keep April prices of its cold-rolled steel products unchanged from a month earlier, according to the company Website.

Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Corporation Limited rose 2.0% to 24.04 yuan after the company announced that it will pay no dividend to its shareholders for fiscal year 2009.

China Vanke Co., Ltd the property developer added 0.9% to 9.25 yuan.

China Shenhua Energy Company Limited the coal-mining company rose 0.7% to 28.53 yuan.

Sanlian Commercial Co., Ltd the retailer increased 5.0% to 6.91 yuan after the company said that court agreed with Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd for its purchase of 10.7% stake in Sanlian Commerce.

HK Movers

Aluminum Corp also known as Chalco closed up 3.3% to HK$8.40 after the parent company agreed to invest in a joint venture in Guinea, Africa with Rio Tinto.

China Eastern Airlines Corp increased 4.2% to Hk$3.76 after its President said that the air carrier will take delivery of 30 new planes.

China Overseas Land & Investment Limited rose 0.4% to HK$16.98 after the company 2009 net profit surged 48%.

China Resources Land Limited the state-controlled developer rose 0.1% to HK$16.70.

Orient Overseas (International) Limited dropped 2.7% to HK$58.05 after the container shipper said 2009 revenues fell 33% to $4.35 billion from $6.53 billion a year ago. Net loss in the year was $402.3 million or 64.3 cents per diluted share compared to net profit of $272.3 million or 43.5 cents per share a year ago.

The company reported its first annual loss since 1998.