Business Channel 2007-10-13&10-15, 港股直通车

Scripts:

Hong Kong Securities broker¹ Au Shing Tai is extremely busy these days. Au helps investors³ choose shares of all sorts of companies. But what are they buying?

They are buying shares in Hong Kong, with those company having business in China.

Buying China related shares here isn't new. For years foreign investors looking to ride on the coattails of China's economic growth buy Hong Kong listed shares of mainland companies like the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. But a recent decision by Chinese authorities to allow its citizens to buy Hong Kong stocks for the first time is fueling the Hang Seng indices' biggest boom ever.

Though it's truly unbelievable. We foot at a tremendous rally that has allowed the Hong Kong market to outperform most of the other Indices around the world.

Since August 20th when Chinese authorities first unveiled the plan to allow its people to trade Hong Kong stocks the Hang Seng has risen by roughly 35% surpassing twenty-eight thousand for the first time last week. Individual investors haven't even started trading yet but the talk is enough to feed speculation⁴.

The Chinese new-joined investor² is sitting on trillions of US dollars worth of savings⁵. Some of them have been already put into their local stock market but the companies that are listed in Hong Kong, are not the same ones that are listed in China and they are much cheaper here's.

Much cheaper because people on the mainland could only buy shares there and not in Hong Kong. Banks and brokerages in China started taking advantage of the steep discount last year after authorities there decided⁶ to allow certain finacial institutions to invest outside the mainland. With the economy booming, China hopes easing the controls on investment will help ease upward pressure on Chinese markets, a run-up many are calling a bubble. Yet despite the growing ties between Hong Kong's and China's market, Au Shing Tai isn't too worried.

That money will push the market even higher and most probably over 30,000 and just keep on, keep moving up and up everyday. History dictates⁷ that no market continually goes up. But these are marksts that are shrugging off bad news and still setting the record...

Notes:

run-up: a often sudden increase

1 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

2 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

5 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 dictates   

n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• Convention dictates that a minister should resign in such a situation. 依照常规部长在这种情况下应该辞职。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He always follows the dictates of common sense. 他总是按常识行事。 来自《简明英汉词典》