Stock Talk | Chinese carmakers jump – at expense of Japan

Chinese carmakers rose sharply in the Hong Kong market on Friday, on speculation that rising hostility to Japanese car brands in China will boost domestic sales.

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Brilliance Automotive workers build BMW sedans in Shenyang, Liaoning. Mainland carmakers may benefit from growing hostility to Japanese products. Photo: EPA

Published: 12:32pm, 5 Oct 2012Updated: 2:50pm, 5 Oct 2012

Chinese carmakers rose sharply in the Hong Kong market on Friday, on speculation that rising hostility to Japanese car brands in China will boost sales of home-made.

Brilliance China Automotive (1114.HK), the Chinese partner of German luxury auto giant BMW, gained 5.7 per cent to HK$9.09 as of 12:20 pm on Friday, outstripping the benchmark Hang Seng Index, which was up 0.31 per cent at 20,972.57. Brilliance China rose as high as HK$9.16 this morning, its highest in nearly eight months.

BMW said on Friday that its sales in China surged by 55 per cent year-on-year to around 27,000 units in September. January to September accumulated sales in the nation rose 32.7 per cent from a year earlier to 219,800 units.

Great Wall Motor (2333.HK), China's largest maker of SUVs and pickup trucks, jumped by 5.5 per cent to HK$21.1 as of 12:20 pm on Friday.

Toyota Motor’s China sales fell about 40 per cent in September from the year before, according to a Reuters report earlier on Friday. The plunge in demand for Japanese vehicles has boosted other foreign brands, with South Korea’s Hyundai saying on Friday that its China sales climbed 15 per cent to 84,188 vehicles last month.