Trading of the shares of the 32 best-performing companies on China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), or New Third Board, began on Monday and has had proactive responses from investors, said the NEEQ.
Of the 32 newly-listed firms on NEEQ, 17 were engaged in high-tech industries, according to the bourse. Spanning 19 industries, most of these best-performing companies belong to the of software and information, pharmaceuticals, computer equipment, pollution control and pesticide development sectors.
Last October, China’s securities regulator selected dozens of best-performing companies to form a new investment tier at the NEEQ and allowed them to be listed on the stock exchange. On Monday, the first batch of 32 companies completed their initial public offerings process and successfully raised 9.45 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion).
Launched in 2013, the NEEQ aims to offer small and medium-sized enterprises a financing channel with low costs and simple listing procedures. By last Friday, the NEEQ had 8,518 listed companies, including 1,188 in the innovative sectors and 7,330 in the traditional sectors.
Beijing’s exports
Despite a drop in the city’s foreign trade, Beijing saw its exports up 2.9% year-on-year in the first half, according to the Chinese capital’s customs.
The total foreign trade of Beijing was 1.13 trillion yuan (US$161.4 billion) in the period, down 18.7% year-on-year. Imports dropped 23.3% to 880.55 billion yuan, while exports rose 2.9% to 248.15 billion yuan. Foreign trade of state-owned enterprises in Beijing went down 23.7% from the previous year. Trade of foreign-invested enterprises dropped 5.7%, while that of private enterprises rose 2.4%.
In the first six months, Beijing imported 335.71 billion yuan of crude oil, down 31.5% year-on-year. Imports of natural gas and automobiles declined by 20% and 18.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, Beijing exported 83.31 billion yuan worth of refined oil in the first half, down 14.4%, and its exports of mobile phones rose 44.3% to 25.84 billion yuan.
Business environment
China’s recent acceleration in business reforms has helped the country become the top reformer among large economies, according to a report issued by the World Bank.
Figures presented in the Doing Business 2020 report, the latest in a series of annual reports by the World Bank, showed that China has made greater progress in the 2005-2020 period than any other large economy in terms of facilitating the ease of doing business.
“China has improved across almost all Doing Business indicators over the last decade, but the progress has been particularly impressive during Doing Business 2018-2020, when most Doing Business indicators improved,” the report said.
In the Doing Business 2018 report, China ranked 78th among 190 economies around the world, improving to 31st position in Doing Business 2020, and has been included among the top 10 fastest global reformers for two years in a row, said the report.
Company news
Kweichow Moutai, a Chinese liquor producer, said its net profit increased 13.29% year-on- year to 22.6 billion yuan in the first half of 2020. Operating revenue grew 11.31% to 43.95 billion yuan. Domestic market contributed 42.81 billion yuan of its operating income during the period.
In 2019, Moutai’s revenue was at around 88.85 billion yuan, up by about 15.1% year-on-year. Its operating profit rose by 14.99% from the previous year to about 59 billion yuan.
The legendary liquor producer, based in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, produced around 75,000 tonnes of base liquor for its Moutai brand and series brands in 2019, up by 6.88% year-on-year.
The story was written by Xu Jiangshan and Liu Licong and first published at ATimesCN.com. It was translated by Nadeem Xu.