HK Hot Stocks-Chalco,Ping An tumble; Esprit rises
Reuters - 14 hours ago
HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) eased the HSI off its lows. The China Enterprises Index .HSCE of top locally-listed Chinese firms gave up 2.3 ...


Hot money and informal banking (Jul 3)
Sorry.  My blog site was down so this Wednesday entry was posted Thursday, one day late.   I was too busy to post anything Tuesday, but there wasn’t a whole lot new to say except to bemoan the stock market’s performance, again.  The SSE Composite dropped 3.1%.  Today after a rocky start it seemed to find its legs, trading up 1.8% by lunch, before giving it all up to end the day almost perfectly flat at 2701.  It is now trading almost exactly 10% below 3000, which as recently as three weeks ago was the market’s imagined government-intervention level.   The property market doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot better, at least in Shanghai.  Two articles in today’s South China Morning Post warn that Shanghai’s property sales are down.  According to one, “The sale of new flats in Shanghai measured by floor area, plunged almost 50 per cent in the first half, and sources said the market was unlikely to turn around until September, traditionally the peak season for property sales.”  Shangha...


Hang Seng Index closed at 21,704.45, falling 397.56 points (Canadian Business) (Jul 2)
HONG KONG - The Hang Seng Index closed at 21,704.45 on Wednesday, falling 397.56 or 1.8 per cent.


New Guestbook Entry by Lucia Jin (Jun 29)
Dear Prof. Pettis

I have been reading your blog, and has an economic student i found it very useful and interesting. Could i ask you a question? What do you think about the chinese currency? do you think its still undervalued? Becoze now im particulary interested in this issue.

Thank you very much.

Regards.

Lucia

See all guestbook entries.



Some anecdotal evidence of risks in the banking system (Jun 29)
Before I talk about the banking system I just want to mention a quick story.  After the 18% hike in fuel prices last week I wondered how taxi cabs in the major cities would fare – obviously fuel is a major component of their running costs.  My understanding was that they had not been permitted to raise their prices in consequence of the price hike, and in Beijing I notice that I have been paying exactly the same prices for cab rides as I had before the price hike.   Yesterday Shouwang, one of my favorite local musicians (read about him in tomorrow’s New Yorker), had to pick me up in a taxi.  As I got in he apologized for the fact that the air conditioning was not on.  He had asked the cabbie to turn it on but was told that because of the fuel price hike the cabbie could not afford to do so.  That suddenly reminded me that in the previous week none of my cabs were air-conditioned, where typically half of them had been in the past.  It seems that from now on (at least until they allow...


HSBC plans 3 new funds on mainland (Dec 19)
Europe’s biggest bank HSBC Holdings Plc<5><HBC> is expecting to receive regulatory approval for its fourth fund operating in mainland China soon. The bank aims to start three new funds in the country next year,


BOA to cut stake in China Construction Bank (Dec 19)
Bank of America (BOA), the largest U.S. bank in terms of market value, said it would cut its holdings in China Construction Bank (CCB)<601939><939>, one of China’s Big Four state-owned commercial banks