Month: August 2007

ICBC the biggest bank

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Last Updated on May 9, 2008 by stlplace

Yesterday, ICBC, Industrial and Commerce Bank of China (6001398.SS), went up 0.57 (just one cent shy of 10%), and closed at 6.37 Yuan. With that price, ICBC exceeded Citibank and became the world largest bank (market cap wise), and closes in Microsoft in terms of market cap (bloomberg).

I remember last time ICBC closed in Citibank was 3 or 4 months ago, but this time it has more sustance (I mean fundamental, or earnings). Chinese banks, along with real estate developers, are on the fire lately and people attribute that to:

1) The rise of the Yuan.

2) The continuing growth of domestic economy, along with rising CPI (inflation) and rising property value. The actual bank interest rate is negative if you consider the inflation (4%).

Tags 601398, ICBC

Stocks

Sold the Heelys HLYS

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Last Updated on August 8, 2007 by stlplace

I placed a market order before the market open. The last time I did something similar is two years ago when the Ninetowns reported that their customers (Chinese goverment) would no longer pay them for the software. They would get a free version instead.

But HLYS did worse in terms of the stock. It closed at 21.99 yesterday, and opened 13.38 this morning. I lost more than $7 per share (bought it 20.95 about two weeks ago).

It seems I haven’t learned my lessons in 2 years. Seriously I felt lucky this time because the gain in other stocks covered the loss. Actually I did made some money on HLYS too (a while ago), today I gave it all back 🙁

Both the CEOs of NINE and HLYS are on my “CEO Hall of Shame” list now. We should all be careful when we put our hard earned money to the stock market: look for good CEOs, real good CEOs.

BTW, I saw 5 analysts downgrade the HLYS today. This time I agree with the analysts.

Tags HLYS, NINE

Fun

Beijing Olympics is one year away

Post author By stlplace
Post date August 8, 2007
No Comments on Beijing Olympics is one year away

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Last Updated on August 8, 2007 by stlplace

There are many activies to celebrate this special occassions. Here is the logo at google.cn.

Tags beijiing-2008, Google

Stocks

Heelys went off track

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Last Updated on August 7, 2007 by stlplace

Heelys reported a decent second quarter, at the same time it warned its second half will be more challenging. “Challenging” is a polite word, “go off track” is more proper in my mind. So I guess I will take my loss tonight when the market opens.

With Heelys report, all my 6 stocks reported earning. Two winners are CROX and MR; two losers are GSIT and HLYS; SBUX and SNCI did ok. I normally don’t bet on earnings these days; the reason I bet on HLYS was I thought the expectation is already low, and “back to school” seems did well. But…the wheels came off.

So, the lesson for me is, don’t bet on earnings. Especially demaged stocks like HLYS and NINE.

Heelys pic

Tags earning, Heelys, HLYS

Fun

Faked iPod Nano

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Last Updated on August 7, 2007 by stlplace

I found this knock off iPod Nano at Taobao, Mr. Ma Yun’s company. Note his big baby Alibaba is preparing for the IPO in Hongkong later this year.

It appears to me this “grey market iPod” looks very much like the real one; and it has its own market, because fashion-chasing teenagers in China want the iPod feeling without breaking their wallet. The asking price is 460 Yuan, note the real iPod nano is about 1,800 Yuan.

I know some of you (Apple shareholders) will not feel happy. Now you can understand how I felt when I saw people buying or wearing knockoff Crocs, as I’m a CROX shareholder 🙂

Tags apple, Crocs, iPod

Fun

Who cares Mr. Market the most?

Post author By stlplace
Post date August 6, 2007
No Comments on Who cares Mr. Market the most?

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Last Updated on August 7, 2007 by stlplace

1) Traders, including the grannies sitting in China stock brokage houses.

2) Hedging fund: people who have short positions, options…all these are closely related to the general market, and can have a wider swing than common stocks.

3) Mutual fund: because they have a large portifolio, they are exposed to the general market condition (weak, strong, swing etc.)

4) Economist and reporters: it’s economist job to predict the economy; and it’s reporters’ job to report the market.

Tags Mr.-Market

Stocks

Mindray reports a solid Q2

Post author By stlplace
Post date August 6, 2007
No Comments on Mindray reports a solid Q2

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Last Updated on August 6, 2007 by stlplace

Here are the results. The important thing is they beat the est. and raised the guidance again. I also listened to its conference call, some interesting information:

1) The company plans to increase its international sales headcount to more than 200 people by the end of 2007 and to open offices in Amsterdam, Mexico City, Moscow, Sao Paulo and Toronto.

2) At the end of the second quarter 2007, the company had more than 850 R&D staff and is on track to increase R&D headcount to more than 1,000 employees by the end of 2007.

It appears the international growth is the main theme for the company. The domestic growth is also good, but not as fast as US market.

Tags Mindray, MR

China Stocks

Hot market and smart money

Post author By stlplace
Post date August 5, 2007
No Comments on Hot market and smart money

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Last Updated on August 5, 2007 by stlplace

The China stock market is breaking new high again, after the May 30 “man made” crash, and amid the “housing and financial crash” in the US. Yesterday I heard from a family member, who was fairly cautious about the stock market, now thinking about put the money back to the market. This is confirmed by the warming up of “new account” opening in Shanghai and Shenzhen. After the raise of stamp tax, the interest rate, and bank reserve rate, the fearless Chinese stock investors (especially institutions) pushed blue chips such as China Merchants Bank, Vanke to their new high.

The million dollar question is: can this rally be sustained? Well, I will let the analysts and experts to comment on this. My job is provide the facts. In the weekend I saw a new newspaper named “Li Cai Zhou Bao“, or “financial weekly”, interestingly it’s being translated to “Smart Money”. Curious about its content, I shelled out 6 Yuan and got a copy. This is a title of No. 1 article “The stock most likely will go up to 100 in no time“. Well, I remember couple weeks ago, Cramer did this “80 to 120” series on his mad money, we all know what happened after his show (hint: Dow crash).