Star Market Soars on Friday Despite New Tariff Warnings

Financials, Healthcare Author: Ivan Platonov Aug 02, 2019 11:47 AM (GMT+8)

The Star Market stocks surged in the morning trading session. Is China's sci-tech board tweet-proof?

A screenshot of the Star board page in Choice terminal, captured at 11:39:12, August 2, 2019

While major Asian markets cratered after the fresh tariff announcement, investors are seemingly bullish about the Shanghai Stock Exchange Star board: shares at the venue jumped an average 5.05% this morning.

The Star Market, a Nasdaq-style subplatform on the Shanghai bourse, saw its stocks reaching a new record high by the midday break. Combined market cap of the 25 companies hit CNY 651.33 billion (USD 94.31 billion), growing 5.9% from yesterday's closing CNY 615.06 billion (USD 89.05 billion).

Shandong province-based electrical equipment producer Raytron Technology (688002:SH) hit the "+20%" ceiling and stopped trading for a while. Cutting tools manufacturer Worldia (688028:SH) zoomed 11.9%, its market cap climbed to CNY 11.28 billion (USD 1.63 billion). Rail transportation behemoth CRSC (688009:SH), the largest company on the board, surprisingly found itself among the top performers with 10.78% boost in share price.

At the same time, mainland China main boards indices Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite dropped 1.68% and 1.90% respectively this morning. Hang Seng sunk 2.37%, Nikkei 225 shifted down 2.40%.

The second week of trading on the Star board is drawing to a close. This July became a turning point for China's capital markets as the new venue was finally launched.