Shanghai Composite Index tumbles

The Shanghai Composite Index took a bit of a tumble yesterday, falling 5.8% to bring it down 16% for the month. This might be cause for alarm were the benchmark index not still up 58% for the year. Shanghai’s drop helped drag the rest of Asia downward yesterday, but analysts stressed that the fickle nature of Chinese retail (lottery) investors may be more to blame than any fundamental weakness in the Chinese economy. It was a message repeated by market watchers as FDI figures for July showed a 35.7% year-on-year drop to US$5.4 billion. China’s FDI for the first seven months of the year was down 20.4% to US$48.3 billion, but again analysts believe this says more about the weakness of multinationals than that of the Chinese economy. The mainland’s growth has buoyed the hopes of international investors raising RMB-denominated funds in their continuing quest for mainland cheddar. The latest: CLSA is teaming up with Shanghai Guosheng Group to launch a US$1.46 billion yuan fund. In doing so, CLSA joined the exclusive company of Blackstone and Hong Kong’s First Eastern Investment Group who have embarked on their own RMB fundraising.