China Financial Scan | 17 April 2009 edition

April 17, 2009 - PRLog -- Top 8 headlines

SPECIAL: National Economy: Positive Changes Emerged in the First Quarter of 2009

   * National Bureau of Statistics official release: "the gross domestic product (GDP) of China in the first quarter of this year was 6,574.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%, which was 4.5 percentage points lower than that in the same period last year."
   * Agriculture: expected planting area for grain to reach 108.14m hectares (summer grain +1.27% to 27.16m hectares; autumn crops +1.16% to 75.12m hectares), output of pork, beef and mutton +6% to 16.15 million tons.
   * Industrial production: total value added by industrial enterprises was up 5.1% year on year (higher in march at 8.3% than 3.8% than the first two months); growth of heavy industry was 4.5%, 6.8% for light industry.
   * Fixed asset investment: Q1 fixed asset investment grew 28.8% YoY to 2,812.9 billion yuan.
   * Retail sales: Q1 retail sales rose 15%  to 2,939.8 billion yuan (real growth of 15.9%); top gainers were furniture +24.1%, construction/decoration materials +20.2%, vehicles +11.1%.
   * CPI: Q1 Consumer Price Index down, -0.6% QoQ, -1.2% YoY.
   * Foreign trade: total value of imports and exports in Q1 down -24.9% to US$428.7 billion; exports US$245.5 billion -19.7%, imports US$183.2 billion -30.9%; trade surplus US$62.3 billion. FDI (foreign direct investment) was up 34.6% to US$21.8 billion in Q1.
   * Employment: in the first two months employment in urban areas grew by 1.62 million. Per capita disposable income was 4,834 yuan in Q1 YoY growth of 10.2%.
   * Money Supply: M2 +25.5% to 53.1 trillion yuan, M1 +17% to 17.7 trillion yuan, M0 +10.9% to 3,374.6 billion yuan. Loans by financial institutions up 4,581 billion yuan to 34,955 billion yuan; deposits up 5,616 billion to 52,262 billion yuan.

China Zhong Wang's $1 billion HK IPO to test appetite

   * Zhong Wang will begin its investor marketing road show on Monday in Hong Kong, with pricing of its shares scheduled for April 30 and listing targeted for May 8 in a deal to raise between $700 million and $1 billion, according to a Reuters report.
   * China Zhong Wang, maker of aluminium extrusion products such as window frames and railcar components, is well positioned as a Chinese economic recover play. It earned 1.9 billion yuan (US$278m) in 2008 on revenue of 11.3 billion yuan (versus 852 million on 7.5 billion in 2007).

China c.bank to sell up to 75 bln yuan 3-mth bills

   * China's central bank said on Wednesday that it will auction up to 75 billion yuan (US$11 billion) of 3-month bills in its open market operations on Thursday; down from 95 billion yuan last week.
   * On Tuesday the central bank drained 80 billion yuan through 28-day bond repurchase agreements and 60 billion yuan through 91 day repos. 197 billion yuan in central bank bills will mature this week.

Singapore's Banyan Tree raises 1st China hotel fund

   * Singapore-based Banyan Tree, luxury resort and hotel developer, completed a $500 million dollar fund (originally targeting about $700m) according to a Reuters report.
   * Banyan Tree apparently plans to develop 5 or 6 hotel projects across China, and is said to be hiring senior executives and planning to open an office in Shanghai.

PICC says AIG has no intention of selling PICC shares

   * PICC Property & Casualty, China's top non-life insurer, sought to reassure the market by saying that Americal International Group (AIG) has no intention of selling its 9.9% stake in the company.
   * PICC shares fell 6.9% to HK$4.88 at Midday on Thursday, Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform after PICC reported a 98% plunge on its 2008 net profit to 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) due to higher underwriting losses and lower investment income.

Citi China gains net income of 1.3 bln yuan in 2008, 95% up year on year

   * Citibank (China) Co announced that its net income reached 1.3 billion yuan (US$190 million) in 2008, up 95%. Its operating revenue was up 46% to 3.6 billion yuan.
   * Citi China increased its yuan lending 17% from 2007; its capital adequacy ratio reached 13.6% versus 11.5% in 2007. The bank also opened 6 new consumer outlets in Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian; bringing its total outlets to 26.

China Eastern Airlines cuts investment to curb losses

   * China Eastern Airlines said it slashed costs and investments by more than 800 million yuan in the last four months to offset huge losses (it lost 13.9 billion yuan in 2008).
   * Measures it took included cutting aircraft purchases to a maximum of 13 in 2009 (at least 10 fewer than planned), suspended 29 investment projects worth 3.15 billion yuan; it also said it would increase the frequency of profitable scheduled flights in Shanghai and Kunming. Its stock price was $17.50, down -4.11% in overnight trading on NYSE.

China’s Stock Index Falls for First Time in Six Days on Economy

   * The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.1% to 2,534.13, the Shenzhen Component fell 0.14% to 9,711.36, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.55% to 15,582.99.
   * Shenhua -3.1% (24.63 yuan), China Coal -3.7% (10.81 yuan) - it cut production by 4.6% in Q1. Datong Coal Industry Co -3% (26.12 yuan), Yunnan Copper -0.6% (22.03 yuan) - it posted a 2008 loss of 2.79 billion yuan on lower metal prices and writedown of inventories. China Southern -3.1% (5.98 yuan) - it's rating was cut to “sell” from “buy” by Deutsche Bank, citing risks from an uncertain Guangdong province economy and carrier’s ability to contain costs. China Cosco, +2.5% (13.47 yuan), China Shipping +1.5% (14.58 yuan).

VIEW SOURCES: http://financial.chinaeconomicscan.com/17apr09.html

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