Morning Roundup

The Nikkei and Japanese yen were both off to the races this morning (link goes to charts), with the combo up over 3% after the open for dollar investors, but Nikkei gains quickly faded (as of 11 AM 东京).

China Merchants Bank (3968.HK) reported its third consecutive quarter of falling earnings and missed analysts estimates by 20%. From Bloomberg:

Net income fell 41 percent to 4.1 billion yuan ($600 million) in the second quarter, from 6.93 billion yuan a year earlier, based on figures released by the Shenzhen-based company. That fell short of the 5.1 billion yuan average estimate of six analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

President Ma Weihua, who introduced the nation’s first credit card and helped boost profit sevenfold since 2004, faces more challenges during an economic slowdown because of the bank’s focus on loans to home buyers and smaller firms. The profit decline was the steepest among China’s six largest publicly traded banks.

“The profit plunge is mainly due to margin contraction,” said Sheng Nan, analyst at UOB Kayhian Investment Co. in Beijing. “With funding costs expected to decline in the second half, China Merchants’ profitability will improve.”

Financials have underperformed off their 52-week lows and China Merchants climbed just 100% off its bottom. There are a few sub-100% rebounds on my watchlist, but most are in the range of 100%-300%, with a couple of 900% outliers in Comba (2342.HK) and Hildi Industry (1393.HK)

Lehman Brothers fallout continues in Hong Kong:

Six listed banks have made a combined provision of HK$1.1 billion for the first half of this year to cover refunds to investors who bought Lehman minibonds.

But that represents only 17.46 per cent of the total HK$6.3 billion settlement agreed by 16 lenders last month with the Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Including the provision made last year, the six lenders have paid a total of HK$1.78 billion, representing 28 per cent of the total.

The agreement called for the banks to repay customers at least 60 per cent of their initial investment in the minibonds guaranteed by Lehman. Those who made individual settlements earlier below the threshold will receive a top-up.

Speaking of Lehman Brothers, too bad I didn't add it to the OTB Portfolio. On Friday, LEHMQ.PK was gunned to $0.15 on 73 million shares, a 200% advance. It had traded for $0.04 or $0.05 for the past five months, with a few brief pops up and volume around a few million a day.

Finally, China Southern Airlines reported a 97% drop in first half earnings (ZNH). Other airlines earned a profit from fuel hedges, but China Southern exited its hedges last year.

H-Shares Near or at 52-week highs

I posted this list on the "mirror" site, and I'm not about to translate it at this hour. Add .hk to the symbols and you can see them on Yahoo!, or click the links and change the page to English. First are near 52 week high, then at 52 week high, and then I have one Mainland stock, Emei Shan. This list is not total, nor any recommendation, just some stocks off one watch list. Many are tech, commodity, and consumer stocks.

很多我经常看看的股票快到52周高：
香港交易所 0388

越秀投资 0213

中国粮油控股 0606

紫金矿业 2899

有的已经到了！
腾讯控股 0700

京信通信 2342

金山软件 3888

阿里巴巴 1688

中国食品 0506

康师傅控股 0322

中国旺旺 0151

比亚迪股份 1211

中国动向 3818

大陆
峨眉山 000888.SZ

Update 2009-06-03: Clive Corcoran has an article on Seeking Alpha, the title of which explains the content: 

Hong Kong Index Ends at Exactly 38% Retracement of Swing High/Low

Watch List Update - Big Gains Off Lows

I follow the gains off the 52-week intra-day lows to see what sort of bounces there have been in the market. Many are up more than 100%, with several at multiples of that, such as Comba (2342.HK), up 415%. Materials and tech had the biggest bounces, similar to U.S. markets, while transports, financials and consumer sectors had some of the weakest. The Hang Seng Index bounced 27% off its 52-week low. Only eight of the 51 funds on my watch list failed to beat that index. However, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index is up 58% from its low. About 60% of the companies, 32 out of 51, beat that return. Finally, the Shanghai Composite is 39% above its low, and all of the Mainland stocks on my list beat that handily.