Both offshore and mainland shares kicked off 2018 with a bang on Tuesday. The Hang Seng set an upbeat tone for global markets in the new year, breaking above 30,000 for the first time since mid-November and surging to a more than 10-year high.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index soared more than 3% to its best close since July of 2015:
Gains were chalked up to a solid Caixin PMI print (December 51.5 versus estimates of 50.7) and a report that suggested a nationwide property tax could be delayed until 2020. That had the property developers on the move:
“[The prospects] for offshore China equities in 2018 remains rosy as fundamentals remain solid and are set to deliver a decent double-digit growth rate in earnings,” CICC’s Hanfeng Wang wrote in a Tuesday note.
“Consensus is expecting over 10% return for Hong Kong stocks this year [and] many funds are restocking after returning from holidays,” First Shanghai Securities’ Linus Yip adds.
For its part, the SHCOMP was up 0.8% and the CSI 300 tacked on 1.4%.
Meanwhile, the yuan climbed past 6.50 for the first time since early September, when the PBoC relaxed rules on forwards, a move that allowed the currency to slide after an epic summer rally against the greenback.
