Jan 9, 2012

China - China shares up after Premier Wen comments, Hong Kong down



HONG KONG - China stocks jumped on Monday, outperforming the rest of Asia, after the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Beijing would improve market regulation and protect investor rights after a financial work conference over the weekend.

Wen said China must "strengthen and improve its financial supervision and effectively prevent systematic financial risks", calling on Saturday for a reduction of risks from local government debt.

Gains In Shanghai came in midday A-share turnover that was the highest since Dec. 1, a day after Beijing cut the reserve requirement ratio for commercial lenders for the first time in three years.

The Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.4 per cent at 2,194.6 by midday, slightly off the day's high, with coal issues posting the strongest gains. The Shanghai energy sub-index was a standout outperformer, climbing 4.5 per cent.

The Shanghai Composite has dropped almost 33 per cent over the last two years, underperforming Asian peers as Beijing progressively tightened monetary policy to fight inflation.

"People are desperately betting on a rebound, it doesn't need much of a reason for that to happen. Whether or not it can be sustained is another matter," said a fund manager at a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII), declining to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Mainland media reported that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) was considering steps to cool speculation on initial public offerings, including allowing institutional investors buy more IPO shares.

While comments from the two-day National Financial Work Conference were short of details, HSBC economists said that in the short term, they could be taken to imply more monetary policy easing for 2012.

"But the focus will be on ongoing projects, public housing, rural areas and SMEs. We reiterate our call for at least 150bp RRR cuts in the first half of 2012, with the next cut likely in the coming weeks," said Qu Hongbin, HSBC's co-head of Asian economics research, in a note on Monday.

Mainland investors took the outcome of the National Financial Work Conference, held every five years, as a sign to pour into sectors that have been most battered recently, such as coal.

Reuters



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