Results tagged “shanghaicompositeindex”

• Despite earlier protests, there will be a new maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou. This week, the local government announced that the construction of this line will start in 2010, three years later than planned. It is supposed to be finished in 2015, when we will be able to go to Hangzhou in just 30 minutes.
• Things are looking dark on the Shanghai stock market: This Monday the Shanghai Composite Index ended down 5.34 percent, at 2, 319.868 points. Over the last seven days, it dropped a whopping 14.95 percent.
• Safe sex is on the agenda, this week we read about free condoms in the office district of Jingan, now Shanghai's university and college campuses will get condom vending machines. According to Shanghai Daily, 85 percent of the students in a recent survey found it most convenient to buy condoms from machines, rather than in stores. We just think it's a little unfair that the students have to buy their condoms while office workers get them for free.

Chinese investors came off of the October golden week in a buying mood. The A share market gapped higher and never looked back. At mid day break, the Shanghai Composite Index is up 3 percent, or 166 points at 5718, yet another record high.

China’s August Consumer Price Index is out: a whopping 6.5 percent higher over comparable period last year, much higher than the 5.8 to 6 range economists were forecasting. The number, which measures inflation at the retail level, further breaks down to a 6.2 year over year price hike in major metro regions; but out in poverty stricken rural areas, goods and services are 7.2 percent more expensive than they were 12 months ago. In other words, poor people, who are always disproportionately hurt by rising inflation, are hit with the double whammy of even faster price escalation. While there is no golden standard for the CPI, most central bankers and economists are uncomfortable with a number above 2.5 percent. China has been trending between 3 to 4 percent for the past several months. The latest reading is a ten year high.

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Singapore Airline’s joint bid for a 24 percent stake of China Eastern Airline finally received its blessing from Beijing last week. The deal valued CEA at HK$3.80 per share. China Eastern’s Hong Kong listing after a three month halt resumed trading earlier today and promptly doubled from HK$ 3.73 to HK$ 7.50 before paring back to settle around HK$ 6.90 in the afternoon. Today’s surge in gave the two new investors an instant HK$5.84 billion profit on paper, about USD $750 million. Not bad for a day’s work! Shares of all four major Chinese airlines (the other three are Air China, China Southern and Hainan Air) traded on the domestic exchange rallied 10 percent on the news, the maximum daily limit allowed under local rules. In related news, the Shanghai Composite Index closed at another a record high, up 102 points, or 2 percent, at 5321.

During her speech at a conference on quality and safety issues held on Thursday, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi described a new four-month nationwide campaign to improve the quality of goods and food safety as a "special battle" to ensure the people's health and interests and maintain a good image of Chinese products.

Shanghai prosecutors have charged former property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi with misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging value-added tax receipts, said a government source.

Chinese stocks plunged more than 5 percent yesterday, as more and more investors chose to stay away from the highly volatile market. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.25 percent to close at 3,615.87 points, extending Wednesday's two percent loss. In the last month, almost half of the yuan-denominated A-shares in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges have fallen more than 30 percent. On Wednesday, only 70,132 new accounts were opened - a big drop from the daily average of over 300,000 in May.

Back in late February, a 10 percent swoon in China’s equity market touched off a global sell off. Had you NOT listened to us and bought in on the dip, you’d be sitting pretty and swimming in coins like Scrooge McDuck. Yesterday, the Shanghai Composite Index crossed 4000 for the first time ever, a whopping 50 percent higher than where it stood at the end of that dreadful day just two months ago, and on the heels of a 160 percent gain last year. Sorry, we were dead wrong. Now we hear stories of people pawning their homes, cars, children to raise capital for the stock market. Very sensible indeed.

Are you in the Chinese stock market? No, this isn’t a reprint of the post from last month. We ask because yesterday, both the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges dropped about nine percent, registering their biggest decline in a decade, surpassed only by the sell off the day after late reformist leader Deng Xiaoping died in 1997.