(Bloomberg) -- Chinese property-developer stocks rallied on speculation the government and central bank will announce new measures to boost the housing sector at a joint briefing scheduled for Thursday.
A Bloomberg gauge of developer shares surged as much as 8.3%, reversing a decline of almost 7% Tuesday. China Vanke Co., one of the nation’s biggest property firms, climbed as much as 16% in Hong Kong, and Longfor Group Holdings rose as much as 13%.
Officials from the Housing Ministry, the People’s Bank of China, the Finance Ministry and the National Financial Regulatory Administration will hold a joint briefing at 10 a.m. Thursday, according to a press invitation published late Tuesday.
The surge in property shares Wednesday shows investors are still optimistic Beijing will keep adding stimulus to revive the stuttering economy. That’s despite largely disappointing measures announced at press conference held by the Finance Ministry and National Development and Reform Commission earlier this month.
“The focus of the briefing will likely be on the inclusion of more projects onto the ‘white list’ to ensure housing delivery, accelerate local governments’ purchase of unsold homes for affordable housing, as well as to reinvigorate the land market,” said Kristy Hung, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Hong Kong. The white list is a collection of residential projects deemed suitable for financial support.
“We will likely need to see more quantifiable targets or funding to convince investors that there could be material improvement in the fundamentals for China property,” Hung said.
The price of a number of dollar bonds issued by China Vanke and Longfor Group rose 0.5 cent to 1 cent Wednesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Vanke’s 3.975% bonds due in 2027 were indicated 0.9 cent higher to 67.4 cents.
Iron-ore futures were little changed in Singapore after swinging between gains and losses. The steel-making staple has been hard hit by China’s slowdown this year.
Some analysts are warning there may be further disappointment at the press conference and advised investors to put more focus on a possible meeting of National People’s Congress Standing Committee at the end of October.
“The series of follow-up pressers so far from NDRC to MOF have been disappointing, so it’s completely possible that nothing new will be announced tomorrow and the stocks will fall,” said Vey-Sern Ling, managing director at Union Bancaire Privee in Singapore.
--With assistance from Yuling Yang.
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