BBC (February 21)
“Chinese President Xi Jinping last year officially opened a bridge connecting Hong Kong to Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai—the world’s longest sea crossing bridge—as part of China’s plan to connect Greater Bay Area.” This ambitious plan seeks to spur economic development and “lays out strategic visions for the major cities in the region to become hubs in different sectors.” For example, “Hong Kong would strengthen its status as a finance and trade hub” while Shenzhen would be a tech hub and “Macau would focus on tourism.” An impressive plan, but “analysts question whether its lofty goals can be achieved.”
Tags: Ambitious, China, Finance, Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Tech hub, Trade, Xi, Zhuhai
Financial Times (May 20)
“Today, Hong Kong’s future as a global financial centre looks uncertain as the rival Shanghai Stock Exchange grows in size and credibility…. On the face of it, conditions at the HKEX look fine.” Revenues, profits and new listings were all up in 2017. “Yet Hong Kong was only third when it came to money raised in IPOs. Shanghai and New York were ahead by value, while Shanghai and Shenzhen surpassed the number of Hong Kong listings.”
Tags: HKEX, Hong Kong, IPOs, Listings, New York, Profits, Revenues, Rival, Shanghai, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen
The Week (January 6)
“For the Chinese stock markets, it was not a happy New Year.” The initial drops in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Composites were “an unwelcome reminder of two precipitous crashes that befell China’s stock market midway through 2015.” Things have leveled off and it’s true that “the performance of any country’s stock market has only a tangential relationship to the performance of its real economy.”Nevertheless, “the situation for China’s real economy isn’t exactly good.”
Tags: 2016, China, Real economy, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Stock markets
Financial Times (June 25)
“For thrill and spills, you cannot beat Chinese share markets. Recent wild price swings on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses—and the fortunes being made, or lost, by individual retail investors—have made for gripping tales. They have raised fears of a highly-inflated equity bubble about to burst spectacularly. But how much should the rest of the world worry?” This shouldn’t simply be shrugged off “as a local story without wider significance for global financial markets.” The volatility should reinforce concerns that China is “in a bumpy economic transition phase that threatens significant ripple effects in distant parts of the world.”
Tags: Economic transition, Equity bubble, Financial markets, Markets, Price Swings, Retail investors, Shanghai, Shares, Shenzhen
