China’s stocks rallied for their best start in 22 years, as investors piled into shares of the largest companies and developers amid speculation the government will take more steps to bolster economic growth.
PetroChina Co (中石油) surged 10 percent to lead a gauge of energy shares to the biggest advance since 2008. China Vanke Co (萬科) and Poly Real Estate Group Co (保利房地產) soared more than 7 percent after Beijing signaled it will make it easier for first-time home buyers to borrow money to buy homes.
Daqin Railway Co (大秦鐵路公司) advanced 5.1 percent after the government scrapped price controls on bulk cargo. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (香港交易及結算所) jumped 2.7 percent after the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily cited Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) as saying a trading link should be extended to Shenzhen.
Photo: Reuters
The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 3.6 percent to close at 3,350.52, the highest level since Aug. 6, 2009. China is likely to further ease monetary policy, boosting industries that benefit from lower interest rates, China International Capital Corp (中金公司) said in a report yesterday.
“The bull market is continuing with funds rotating to big developers and transport companies,” said Wei Wei, an analyst at West China Securities Co (西部證券) in Shanghai. “Liquidity is still good and funds are looking for bargains in the large-cap sector.”
The CSI 300 index rose 3.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 0.3 percent after rallying 2.2 percent on Friday last week. The Hang Seng slipped 0.6 percent. Mainland markets were closed last week on Thursday and Friday for the holidays. China’s benchmark money-market rate slid by the most in almost two weeks yesterday as cash returned to the financial system with the end of the holiday season.
Gauges of property and industrial companies in the Shanghai index surged more than 3 percent. China Vanke, the nation’s biggest developer, climbed 7.3 percent. Poly Real Estate, the second-largest, gained 10 percent. Gemdale Corp (金地集團) advanced 3.4 percent. The Beijing government said on Wednesday last week that people who buy a first home of 90m2 or less will be eligible for housing-fund loans of up to 1.2 million yuan (US$192,930).
Daqin Railway, the operator of China’s biggest coal transport network, rose 5.1 percent while Guangshen Railway Co (廣深鐵路股份) gained 5.3 percent.
China canceled price controls on railway bulk cargo, packages and privately invested cargo, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its Web site on Sunday.
Gauges of energy and material companies in the CSI 300 gained at least 6.5 percent for the biggest advance among the 10 industry groups. China Shenhua Energy Co (神華能源) and Yanzhou Coal Mining Co (兗州煤業) soared by the 10 percent daily limit.
The Shanghai Composite was the best performer among 93 world indices tracked by Bloomberg last year, as China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest equity market. While the index is trading at the highest level since May 2011 at 12.6 times 12-month projected earnings, it is still cheaper than the ChiNext small-cap index’s multiple of 32, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The CSI 300 climbed 52 percent last year.
Trading volumes in the Shanghai index were 17 percent higher than the 30-day yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the