stlplaceLast Updated on August 22, 2007 by stlplace
I had some free time the other evening, so I walked around the Hongqiao Shanghai City (or Hongqiao Parkson as known to many people), and took some pictures.
Outside view:
Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace
There is an old saying “one can not teach old dog new tricks”. This exactly applied to me, I am talking about programming for my blog. More accurately, I could not get the time of this blog correct.
This blog is hosted in a hosting company at Utah (US Mountain time), and I normally live in St. Louis (US central time), that’s one hour difference from Utah. Also from time to time I visit Shanghai (Beijing time), which is 13 or 14 hours ahead of St. Louis depends on the daylight saving setting.
Last Updated on August 21, 2007 by stlplace
1. Chinese stock market has started in early 1990s and it has not done well until 2005. Why the China A shares market suddenly became so hot since then?
When the Chinese stock market started in the early 1990s, it’s a way for the state owned companies to raise the capital, and market speculators to make money. It’s not friendly to small shareholders because there are two types of shares in additional to floating shares: the state shares and Fa Ren Gu (legal entity shares); those shares can not be floated. Normally the majority shareholder is the goverment (or some Fa Ren) and they have no incentive to help the stock (floating shares) price go up because their shares can not float.
This all changed in 2005 in the Gu Gai (stock reform): during which the floating shareholder are compensated, and the state owned shares and Fa Ren Shares can be floated within a pre-arranged time frame, just like the share plan of big shareholders in the US stock market (unlock period). Now all the shareholders have aligned their interest. The big shareholder and management have incentive to deliver.
Of course another reason is people got lots of money: Chinese has a more than 40% saving rate; the emerging middle class; people made money in business and investing (housing etc.)
2. How can I buy the China A shares?
At this time the A shares are open to Chinese residents. For foreign investors, they can buy through the QFII (source: ChinaDaily), stands for qualified foreign institutional investors, e.g., Morgan Stanley etc.
3. Why some companies like to buy “shell”?
In China there is this listing requirement that a company needs to be profitable before it can list. Some companies that did not meet this req. but want to list, have decided to buy the shell of already listed companies. That will drive up the stock price of the “shell” company. It often triggered lots of insider trading. Buying “shell” is generally not as good as IPO. Lately the Chinese securities regulatory commission (CSRC, equivalent of SEC in the US) has tightened this “shell buying” activities. This makes economic sense to me.