China A-Share Premium

World-Beating China Rally Doomed by PetroChina’s Hong Kong Gap

Shares in the yuan-denominated CSI 300 Index traded at 16.2 times earnings this month, compared with 8.6 times for 43 mainland companies in Hong Kong. PetroChina Co., the country’s biggest company, fetches twice the valuation in China as in Hong Kong.

Restrictions on foreign and local investment that prevent arbitrage with H shares helped make mainland equities more expensive.

It is pretty odd that there is such a large premium that local Chinese investors must pay to own stocks in the same companies available to foreign investors. There has been a discount on the Hong Kong shares (H-shares), of maybe 20-30%, for years. But it seems that either the H-shares are cheap or the Chinese shares are too expensive (or maybe a little of both). I am positive on the outlook for China both in the short and long term. Though investments there do have substantial risks (as they do anywhere). I would imagine this premium for Chinese (A-shares) should also largely disappear over the next decade as the market is allowed to become one (and at least allow arbitrage between to the two markets to reduce the premium).

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Comments

One response to “China A-Share Premium”

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    You won’t see that premium for long. Someone will move it and charge less, and less, and less, until the premium is gone. Capitalism is makings it’s move as we speak, simply by discussing it.

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