Shuli Ren, Columnist

Why This China Bull Run Isn’t a Repeat of 2015

Some things look familiar, but there are several key differences.

July 9, 2020 at 10:00 PM UTC

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

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The animal spirits lifting China’s stock market can evaporate as mysteriously as they appear. Many discerning traders are now scratching their heads, and worry that we’re seeing a repeat of the spectacular boom and bust of 2015.

There are certainly similarities. This rally is too fast, turnover has soared in tandem with margin debt, and online trading platforms are struggling to keep up. Looking at sector-level performance also feels like deja vu — with good reason. Investors are scouring through old trading patterns and buying the same set of stocks. The tech-heavy ChiNext Index is once again the big winner, along with brokers. China’s retail tigers don’t change their stripes.