The last time we wrote about Chinese stocks in our Friday markets wrap-up, it looked like the end might finally have been nearing, the correction come due. Nope.
In the last week alone, stocks in Shenzhen and Shanghai rose nearly 9%. For the year, they’re up 116% and 55%, respectively (helped along, no doubt, by this one). In the interim, the yuan got a much anticipated sign-off from the International Monetary Fund, and Chinese companies started going public faster than their American counterparts for the first time since in four years. The Chinese government isn’t worried about any of this, as Quartz’s Gwynn Guilford notes:
The hero of the Chinese stock bonanza is, rather, the Chinese government. On Friday—a day after the market’s precipitous plunge—China’s central bank declared it wanted a “healthy” stock market, and leading state-run newspapers ran front-page articles proclaiming the bull market’s driving forces—monetary easing and economic reform—to still be intact.
The next stop on the through-train to ever-higher valuations is index producer MSCI’s impending decision (paywall) on whether Chinese stocks will get included in its emerging markets index, which would clear the way for a flood of western capital to make its way into the market. In the meantime, here’s what other assets and indexes did this week:
