Chinese Stocks Soar Over 50 Percent in 2000Boosted by booming national macro economy and favorable policies, China's stock markets went up by more than 50 percent in 2000, ranking high among the world major markets, latest statistics said.By the end of last year, stock exchanges at the country's two bourses of Shanghai and Shenzhen reported unprecedented hikes of 51.7 percent and 58.1 percent respectively in their indices. As the Year of Dragon implied, China's stocks kicked off an active start early last year. The two bourses remained bullish for the first eight months, and shot up again before the end of the year after a short period of corrections. The Shanghai and Shenzhen B-share indices for foreign investors increased by 130 percent and 60 percent respectively last year. Overseas investors were happy with the B-share markets, with some saying that China's Be-share markets have grown into one of the best newly emerging markets in the Asian and Pacific region in 2000." Dragged bubbles of hi-tech shares and the slowdown of the US economy, global stocks jittered as a whole last year. Statistics show that only six out of 38 of the world's major stock exchanges posted gains in 2000. Stock indices in American and Southeast Asian nations plunged, with indices in South Korea and Thailand in particular suffering a slump of nearly 50 percent. The firmer Chinese stocks stirred up investors to enthusiastic trading. Despite massive stock offerings last year, the second boards still saw floods of capitalization and active trading. The B-share markets shrugged off a long-term sluggish performance to revive investors' confidence. |
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