China Travel Stocks Rally on Possible Easing of Pandemic Controls
03 Marzo 2022 - 12:21PM
Dow Jones News
By Anniek Bao
A host of travel and tourism-related stocks rose in Hong Kong
trade Thursday after a report that Beijing is looking at ways to
move on from its zero-tolerance approach to managing Covid-19.
Shares of Chinese online travel giant Trip.com Group Ltd. gained
11%, trimming losses since its June high to 31%. China Eastern
Airlines Corp. and China Southern Airlines Co. each added 5.8%,
while luggage maker Samsonite International SA rose 4.9%.
Shares of hotels manager Huazhu Group Ltd. rose 7.5%, while
Fosun Tourism Group, which operates resorts and manages tourism
facilities in China, added 8.2%. Hotel reservation and flight
booking company Tongcheng Travel Holdings Ltd. gained 7.3%.
The rally came a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that
China is actively exploring ways to loosen Covid-19 controls,
including considering the possible use of travel bubbles modeled on
measures taken during the Winter Olympics. Beijing has employed an
effective but laborious combination of digital surveillance, tight
border controls, mass testing and targeted lockdowns to prevent and
suppress larger outbreaks since the outbreak of Covid-19 in early
2020.
The rally was mainly due to market chatter "that China is
considering abandoning [its] zero-Covid policy," said Julia Yao, a
Shanghai-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian Investment Consulting
Co.
Experiential opening measures as soon as this summer "may
provide some optimism towards further reopening, at a time where
accommodative policies from authorities continue to be in place to
support growth," brokerage IG said in a research note. That could
yield "a worst-could-be-over kind of situation."
The gains helped push the Hang Seng Index 0.6% higher,
offsetting a decline in tech stocks. The index is still down more
than 20% over the past 12 months.
Write to Anniek Bao at anniek.bao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 03, 2022 06:06 ET (11:06 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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