Mexico markets up 44% Brazil markets up 30% Germany Markets up 20% Japan Nikkei 225 up 7% S&P up 13.5% After dipping as low as 998.23 in June 2005, the Shanghai stock index has soared by more than 90 percent this year, making it the world's best-performing major market.
Wow. Very impressive. The Chinese want you to play in their market. Commissions are low. Spreads are narrow. Margin is available to all foreigners who open an account with any internet broker. And to top it all, the profits are tax-free! Let's get rollin'. Forget the USA market!
I thought everyone knew that. China is growing at a sickening pace... with no slowdown in sight. I bought this little mutual fund a few months ago... OBCHX... and it's still booming. It's up around 80% so far this year (I didn't get in from the beginning of the year, so I only made around 35% or so. Still not bad for a fund over a couple of months). I haven't checked, but think China funds have beat every single other fund type on the market this year, so it's been a good place to park money I didn't want to trade. With this much growth, there has to be a pullback at some point. I wouldn't get in right now, but I'd jump all over a good China fund in a pullback.
I'm not entirely sure about waiting. China market has pretty much recently gone parabolic. Recent easing of capital controls as of end of december allowing foreign banks easier access into china may be responsible for this run (and citibanks recent upside explosion last weeks). Suspect the lumpenivnvestoriat either start moving more $$ into china as of the first of the year or wait a little while, see further outrageous growth and then move money in. May be up another 50-90% by that point, who knows. Enjoying this bull run thoroughly - long since last year & only wish I was longer.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Enviro/envENV01122706.htm Associated Press BEIJING -- China's top environmental official is blaming corruption for frustrating environmental protection efforts and worsening the country's already severely polluted air and waterways, state media reported Tuesday. Zhou Shengxian, director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration, said in a report to China's legislature that some local government leaders directly interfere in environmental law enforcement by threatening to remove, demote and retaliate against environmental officials, the official Xinhua News Agency. "The failure to abide by the law, lax law enforcement, and allowing lawbreakers to go free are still serious problems in many places," Zhou was quoted as saying. Xinhua did not say when the report was delivered. Chinese cities are among the world's smoggiest following two decades of breakneck economic growth. The government says all of China's major rivers are dangerously polluted. Millions of people lack access to clean drinking water. "Illegal small chemical plants, paper and leather mills are still being set up," Zhou said. "Many outdated technologies, which should have been replaced, are still in use." Separately on Tuesday, Xinhua paraphrased President Hu Jintao as saying that China needed to focus more attention on energy efficiency and environmental protection. Hu told the ruling Communist Party's political bureau at a recent meeting to step up supervision to ensure that environmental laws were being enforced and to quicken the pace of environmental work overall, Xinhua said. Zhou's and Hu's comments come amid public pressure for stronger action against rampant pollution. The government has promised to make cleaning up the environment a priority over the next five years but attempts by the environmental agency to crack down on big polluters have generally failed.
Hang Seng another new record CLOSING HANG SENG INDEX (HKSE:^HSI) Delayed quote data Edit Index Value: 19,725.73 Trade Time: 4:59AM ET Change: Up 405.21 (2.10%) Prev Close: 19,320.52 Open: 19,620.53 Day's Range: 19512.46 - 19728.00 52wk Range: 14,811.60 - 19,404.00
You'll figure there won't be much corruption when they excecute corrupted beaurocrats on tv... but I guess we're gonna have us some excecutions! I'll get the popcorn.