Which has been the worst-performing stock market this year? Greece, you say? Right. But you get no candy because that's a no-brainer.
Who's next? I hear you offering the names of several European markets. Good guess but sorry. It's the mainland. The Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets have lost 27 per cent and 22 per cent respectively in the first half of this year.
Surprised? The country was the first to come out of the devastating financial havoc and will have little problem achieving 8 per cent economic growth this year - perhaps among the highest in the world. Its economic outlook is brighter than that of the United States, where the shadow of a double-dip remains. The mainland's prospects are better than Europe's, where the haunting sovereign debt issue is far from over, and stronger than Japan's, which never really walked out from its prolonged depression.
Yet the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the FTSE-100 Index and the Nikkei-225 Index have only recorded declines of 7.74 per cent, 10.97 per cent and 12.73 per cent respectively in the past six months.
Compare the A-share market with Hong Kong's stock market and the result is no less puzzling. Our economy is significantly affected by the mainland and the Hang Seng Index contains mostly mainland corporations. Yet the Hang Seng has lost only 9.01 per cent this year.
The result is a widening price gap between the same company trading on the mainland and in Hong Kong. For example, mainland banks are trading here at a 14 to 17 per cent premium to the shares on their home market.