China property stocks rise on strong sales

Shares of mainland developers fell on profit taking yesterday but were up for the week after surging on the back of brisk sales by a growing number of developers.

"We expect property sales will continue to be strong with more new launches," said David Ng, a property analyst at Macquarie Equities Research.

China Overseas Land & Investment said contract sales were HK$111.8 billion for the first nine months of the year, representing 93 per cent of its HK$120 billion annual sales target.

Goldman Sachs lifted its contract sales forecast for Country Garden - controlled by the mainland's richest woman, Yang Huiyan - by 35 per cent to 95 billion yuan (HK$120 billion) this year and predicts further growth next year to 103 billion yuan.

Country Garden had contracted sales of 64.7 billion yuan in the first nine months of the year, exceeding its 62 billion yuan sales target for the whole year, it said in a statement filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday.

In response to positive sales, shares of Country Garden rose 9.6 per cent this week to close at HK$5.50 yesterday, Guangzhou Evergrande was up 6.7 per cent on the week at HK$3.65, Shimao Property leapt 9.7 per cent to HK$20.20 and China Overseas Land climbed 4.9 per cent to HK$24.35.