Is China Hot Again?
By
Rick Aristotle Munarriz
March 3, 2008
|
Chinese stocks are starting to bounce back.
Sure, it's not the kind of surge that we witnessed back in October, where Wall Street's biggest percentage gainers were loaded with Chinese equities on a weekly basis, but the signs of life are clearly there.
Let's go over some of the market's biggest gainers over the past five trading days.
|
Last Week's Gain
|
|
China
Finance Online (Nasdaq: JRJC)
|
31%
|
|
CNinsure (Nasdaq: CISG)
|
30%
|
|
VanceInfo (NYSE: VIT)
|
28%
|
|
China
Shen Zhou (AMEX: SHZ)
|
23%
|
|
Ctrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP)
|
14%
|
There isn't a common theme among the speedsters. China Finance is a fast-growing publisher of market data and a Chinese trading enabler. CNinsure is an independent insurance agency that topped market expectations during last week's quarterly report. VanceInfo provides IT outsourcing. Shen Zhou is a mining company unearthing commodities like fluorite, copper, and zinc. Travel website Ctrip.com earned its keep as a Hidden Gems newsletter favorite with yet another market-thumping performance.
No, there aren't a whole lot of similarities here (beyond the significant point that they all hail from China).
There are bullish signs in other Chinese stocks, too. All five of the publicly traded companies that specialize in multiplayer online fantasy games posted better-than-expected earnings this past quarter, a point driven home this past week when Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA) and Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) came through with great reports.
Scorched investors are likely to tread cautiously, but those who whined about ballistic valuations may want to know that companies like CNinsure, Shanda, and Perfect World now trade at profit multiples in the teens, based on Wall Street's projections for the coming year.
This is why the Global Gains newsletter is loaded with promising globetrotters. Even other Fool growth-stock newsletter services like Rule Breakers, Hidden Gems, and Stock Advisor have a reasonable amount of overseas investments on their scorecards.
China's back, but keep it on the down low.
Closed for 15 months – opening 10 days only! Get notified ahead of time as our expert portfolio manager invests $1 MILLION in the best opportunities from across The Motley Fool’s premium investment services. This is the first open since August 2008, by invitation only. Enter email below.
Terms & Conditions
RSS Headlines
Fool UK