Last Thursday Bloomberg broke a story that the Chinese government has “made preparations” to prop up the Hong Kong stock market to “create a positive atmosphere” ahead of Xi Jinping’s first visit to the city next month on the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China.
How intriguing. It’s like “APEC blue”, but for the stock market – let’s call it “handover-day green”. Surely, China has stepped in to prop up mainland exchanges in the past to avert a crash, so why not do so for Hong Kong’s markets, merely for a visit from the president?
But before we get too excited about this new market intervention, may we ask who the “people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named” are?
According to Asia Unhedged sources, Bloomberg based the story entirely on word from Hong Kong-based investment firms. It sure was kind of Bloomberg to peddle the rumors, but the real story here is just that. Some punters would like people to buy at a time when they usually sell, and financial news reporters have run out of things to write about.