A near tripling in the value of the Chinese stock market this year means China now has more of the world's 10 largest companies by market value than the US, while China hosted more share flotations and raised more capital than exchanges anywhere else in the world.
In frantic trading this week, China Life Insurance Co surpassed AT&T in market value, which means five of the 10 biggest firms by market capitalisation are now Chinese, compared with three in the United States. With inflation rising and growth continuing at heady double-digit rates, speculators in the world's most populous nation are putting some of their €1.6 trillion savings into the share market.
The rally on China's stock exchange has led to further fears of a bubble emerging and securities regulators are saying the market holds "great risks".
So far this year, China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, has urged banks to set aside more reserves eight times, and has raised interest rates five times to help cool the economy. But cooling measures look increasingly fruitless.
The world's new giant companies in the top 10 are China Life, PetroChina, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp.
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