China stocks keep outdoing forecasts

ONLY in China can you predict the world's biggest stockmarket rally and still come out looking like a pessimist.

A year ago, analysts who cover the 50 largest companies trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen said equities were set to rally 28 per cent. Turns out they weren't anywhere near optimistic enough, as monetary easing and a buying frenzy among Chinese retail investors sent shares surging 111 per cent through last week.

Analysts have been scrambling ever since, updating predictions, then re-updating them and re-re-updating them as stocks blew by their target prices.