With 51 trading weeks still to go this year, some Chinese stocks are rolling again.
A couple of last week's biggest winners were companies toiling away in China, taking the baton that hot IPOs and rare earth stocks had in the latter half of last year and running with it.
Solar energy specialist Daqo New Energy (NYSE: DQ) and wireless handset maker and retailer Qiao Xing Mobile (NYSE: QXM) notched gains of 30% last week, putting them near the top of list of winners from the New York Stock Exchange.
Not every Chinese stock performed so well. China GengSheng Minerals (Nasdaq: CHGS) was one of the market's biggest losers after shedding nearly a third of its value last week. However, volatility is no stranger to investors in Chinese equities. The losers along the way shouldn't take away from the victory laps elsewhere.
Last quarter's hottest IPO was Chinese. Youku.com (Nasdaq: YOKU), a leading video website, has roughly tripled since going public at $12.80 last month. The hottest debutante of 2010 was Molycorp (NYSE: MCP). It's a stateside company, but its huge gains since its summertime IPO are largely tied to China's appetite for rare earth minerals.
Where will the next batch of Chinese winners come from? The booming economy and strong probability of a rising yuan should shine on consumer-facing companies. After Youku.com, one of this past quarter's biggest gainers from its IPO offering price was Dangdang (Nasdaq: DANG), a fast-growing online retailer of books that is quickly expanding its offerings. We also can't dismiss Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). The country's leading search engine more than doubled in 2010, and it's off to another hot start in 2011 after soaring nearly 11% last week.
Obviously, there will be some hiccups along the way. But it's hard to doubt China's story stocks when this year's initial chapter is this compelling.
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