Shanghai composite index closed new 52 week low today, at 3094.67 (down 12% compared to a year ago).

(full size pic here, powered by Google Finance)

But I don’t think too much of it, other than the valuation of China A share market is more attractive now. The composite index itself is screwed up because PetroChina A share (601857) has more than 20% of weight, much bigger than its floating shares weight. In case you did not pay attention to PetroChina (NYSE:PTR, 0857.HK), 601857 was CNY 43.96 on Nov. 06, 2007, and closed CNY 16.02 as of today Apr. 18, 2008. That’s a whopping 63.56% drop!

My simply valuation tool for A shares
A more reliable indicator for A share valuation, a tool I found useful, is this AH spread sheet. As one can see from this spead sheet, some Chinese banks’ A share (include ICBC, 601398) is very attractive now. That is, assume the H share is fairly priced. One caveat of this approach, is we can only use it for companies have both A and H shares. But again, I don’t see many gems in the A share only companies in China

China index fund/ETF (FXI, PGJ, CAF)

Although Shanghai composite index lost 12% YoY, I was a bit surprised to find the FXI, PGJ, CAF are still up in the same period. They are up 33%, 22%, 11%, respectively. I know CAF is more closely related to A share. FXI is made up of large cap Chinese H shares; PGJ is made up of Chinese ADRs listed in the US.