-This week I attended a timely symposium, ‘Awakening The Dragon’, hosted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in collaboration with CITIC CLSA and the Bank of China Syd Branch. There were several notable takeaways:

-Since April 2024, the Chinese State Council has been expanding efforts to have local companies declare higher dividends and/or stock buybacks with Beijing frowning upon excessive cash build.

-Further, from August 2024, the PBoC and SAFE (Foreign Ex regulator) have introduced new rules to simplify and relax protocols for Qualified Foreign Investors or QFI’s. These changes and those relating to shareholder returns neatly set the scene for September’s follow-on stimulus announcements relating to capital markets and their operatives.

-Four Chinese corporates presented, including listed heavy equipment manufacturer, Zoomlion (1157 HK), who indicated market conditions were ‘warming up’ and that an important 8-year upgrade cycle for new equipment was due about now. Beijing is apparently actively encouraging ‘old for new’ programs as well as subsidies and preferential policy directives to encourage capital equipment spend.

-Grist-to-the-mill as they say and supportive of the central government’s incremental approach to ladling out stimuli.