Timely boost at a crucial stage for stock punters

Take the Xinmin Evening News, a popular daily in Shanghai with a healthy readership figure of 4.5 million. It has a punchy independent style. It won't criticise the leadership but happily denounces corruption and poor management. Bad news is not swept under the carpet.

But last Monday it led the front page with an article by journalists from Xinhua, the state news agency. That was unusual. Xinmin has enough journalists of its own and Xinhua ones have that terrible repetitive style more suited to Communist party plenary session reports.

In plain language, the article was saying well done Shanghai in the first half, the economy's been tough but it's getting better. Meaningwise it was a government advert emphasising that it stands firmly behind Shanghai and the economy. As much as anything, it was designed to give a warm feeling to stock-market punters who are having a busy few weeks.

New issues restarted last month after a nine-month pause. The first three were on the Shenzhen market, where companies are smaller and sportier than Shanghai. All were heavily oversubscribed and shares went to a premium when trading started. So far, so good.

The first Shanghai offering, Sichuan Expressway, was launched last Wednesday. At £160 million, it's bigger than the Shenzhen issues but still a manageable size. We'll know the results this week. But the real test comes on Wednesday when China State Construction launches its issue. With housing a pillar of the government's stimulus plan, it should have no shortage of business. But the issue weighs in at a hefty £3.8 billion. Let's hope the punters think size doesn't matter.

* The Expo painting frenzy still grips Shanghai. If it hasn't been pulled down, paint it. There's scaffolding everywhere. Friends returned home to find their terrace house repainted and external aircon units realigned with the neighbours'. Luckily their maid refused to let the workmen in to paint the inside as well.

* Second-quarter economic numbers give plenty of scope for green-shoot watchers. But the most dramatic was the figure for foreign exchange reserves. They'd grown to US$2.13 trillion (£1.3 trillion). With exports still weak and inward foreign investment down it looks as though money is being repatriated. Now that is a positive sign.