Chinese stocks (#279, Topic M)

The Investor's Business Daily headlined "Slew of China Firms Thrive as Economy Keeps On Surging" as its top front-page story on 12/5. The story gives a tabulation of 25 publicly held companies, headquartered in China, with their shares listed on stock exchanges in China as well as in US (the latter through American Depository Receipts). Many, apparently, hit new highs in recent days. "China Mobile, the country's [as well as the world's] biggest telecom, set a 52-week high on Nov. 6. ... Focus Media hit a record Nov. 29. No.1 oil and gas producer Petro China set a fresh peak Monday [12/4]." Among new issues, the story cites Mindray Medical International, Home Inns & Hotels, and New Oriental Education & Technology. Not mentioned is the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which had the world's largest initial public offering on 10/19/06 -- some $22 billion's worth -- not to mention that it was oversubscribed by more than 10 times (meaning that a total of $220 billion could have been raised were shares available for subscription); this is only because its shares, at the moment, are not listed on US exchanges. Also mentioned in the story is Bidu, which holds Google to a distant 2nd place in China's search market (Bidu's market share in China is 68%; Google, 23%.) Tonight, Jim Cramer's Mad Money program, after bad-mouthing China all these months, suddenly had a turnaround and recommended a Chinese stock, Global Sources (not in the 25-stock listing in IBD). So, perhaps the gold rush is on -- not in San Francisco, but in China.