Stocks are soaring in Hong Kong on better than expected export news and further stimulus. The Chinese injected another round of tax cuts and infrasturcture stimulus:
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region yesterday announced HK$16.8 billion of tax cuts, fee waivers and spending to shield people from a recession that’s likely to be the worst on record.
The government could “do something further” if conditions worsen, its Financial Secretary John Tsang said at a briefing in the city yesterday.
Adding fuel to the good news was a better than expected report on exports. Analysts had been expecting exports to fall 24% year over year, but came in at 18.2%.
HONG KONG – HONG Kong’s exports plunged again last month, dropping 18.2 per cent year-on-year for April and nearly 21 per cent over the first four months compared with 2008, the government said on Tuesday.
But a spokesman for the southern Chinese city pointed out that the rate of decline had slowed from March, when exports year-on-year were off 21.1 per cent.
‘It will take several more months of data to see if this trend of relative improvement will continue,’ the spokesman said. ‘Going forward, the external environment will remain challenging.’
Hong Kong shares are up over 4% on the news:
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.