Chinese real-estate stocks surge after private sector gets bond-financing boost

Shares of Chinese property developers rose convincingly on Wednesday, after China pushed to expand debt financing for private companies in a bid to shore up the ailing sector.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Mainland Properties index rose 7.3%, compared with a 1.2% decline for the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index. Private developer CIFI Holdings (Group) Co.
884,
+28.57%

jumped 39% to recoup losses over the past month, Country Garden Holdings Co.
2007,
+13.89%

rose 24%, and Longfor Group Holdings Ltd.
960,
+4.03%

advanced 8.8%.

A self-regulated body comprising an array of financial institutions said Tuesday that it would expand bond-financing tools under the direction of the country’s central bank “to support private companies including real-estate companies.”

The move is expected to support about 250 billion yuan (US$34.49 billion) of bond financing by the private sector and can be expanded further, said the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors.

This is the “second arrow” in a three-part policy approach used in 2018 when some private businesses also faced financing difficulties, it added.

The move is a signal that Beijing​ is willing to find ways to further ease financing problems ​facing ​developers, said ​Ma Hong, senior researcher at Zhixin Investing Research Institute.

The low valuations of real-estate stocks together with a series of supportive policies by the central bank in recent weeks triggered the stock rally, he said.

Amid a prolonged sector downturn and sluggish home-buyer sentiment, even stronger developers have struggled with liquidity problems, and many have defaulted on their dollar-denominated debt. Earlier measures by Beijing to help the sector included a state-guaranteed bond program for a select group of private developers deemed as higher quality.

Write to Clarence Leong at [email protected] and Bingyan Wang at [email protected]

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