Shares in PetroChina were pushed to a nine-month high yesterday as fund managers and retail punters followed in the footsteps of United States investment guru Warren Buffett.
PetroChina rose 3.63 per cent to HK$1.71 on a turnover of $296.75 million, second only to that of market giant HSBC Holdings.
'It used to be trading at only five or six times earnings, that's why I guess Warren Buffett found it undervalued,' said Liu Yang, the managing director of Atlantis Investment Management.
'This means he is quite keen to participate in China's economic growth.'
The legendary Omaha-based investor might be betting that PetroChina's management quality would continue to improve, enabling it to squeeze greater profitability from its powerful franchise in a key Chinese business sector, Ms Liu said.
According to shareholder data released last week by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Mr Buffett's New York-listed Berkshire Hathaway fund bought 85.3 million PetroChina shares at an average of $1.657 each on April 11 and 31.4 million shares at $1.66 on April 15, raising its holding of the company's free-floating shares from 6.71 per cent to 7.17 per cent.
