US bank cuts exposure to China downstream stocks

25 September 2007 08:25  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Morgan Stanley has cut its weighting in Chinese downstream energy stocks and increased its exposure to upstream energy players due to the central bank’s decision to maintain a tightening of monetary policy, the US investment bank said.

 

“Investors should switch from downstream energy and power stocks [refinery and power utilities] to upstream [oil and coal], as the lack of pricing power of refiners and power companies will make them suffer more under the oil surge and China inflation,” Jerry Lou, an analyst from the US bank, said late on Monday.

 

The People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) policy, against the backdrop of a US interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, showed that regulators saw inflation and asset prices in China as greater risks than the yuan’s appreciation, he said.

 

This could mean that regulators were “highly unlikely” to deregulate energy and power prices in China this year, he added.

 

To reflect this change of view, Morgan Stanley cut Shanghai Petrochemical out of its portfolio of China stocks by 1% and reduced its holding in energy major Sinopec by 2%.

 

The investment bank, however, added weights to upstream energy players PetroChina by 4% and CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corp) by 3%.

 

 

By: Jeanne Lim
+65 6780 4359

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