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China Mobile Ltd. HKG:0941, Lai Sun Development HKG:0488

Hong Kong should see gains today as on Wall St over night House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he was optimistic that a budget deal to avert large tax hikes and spending cuts currently under discussion in Washington could be reached. President Barack Obama, speaking later in the day, said he hoped to get a deal done in the next four weeks.

“The fiscal cliff is dominating the discussion, and short term, we’re a little bit too optimistic on it being fixed right away,” said John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in New York.

The market has been swinging on headlines from Washington for weeks now, with Wednesday’s gyrations once again highlighting the importance that Wall Street is giving to finding a solution to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”

 Lai Sun Development HKG:0488

Lai Sun Development HKG:0488 looks like a bargain today.

Lai Sun Development (0488) won the residential site in Tseung Kwan O for HK$2.83 billion.

The site was awarded to Strongly Limited, a subsidiary of Lai Sun, the Lands Department said. Six developed competed for the site.

The plot has an area of 21,306 square meters, with a gross floor area between 31,959 and 53,265 square meters. At least 535 flats must be built in the project.

Relative Valuation

China Mobile Ltd. (HKG:0941)

China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile network operator with close to 700m subscribers, is to demonstrate its NFC payments platform for the first time on 5 December at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

China Mobile describes its NFC mobile wallet service as a “multi-application open platform”. Customers’ secure credentials will be stored in the SIM card of an NFC phone and the platform will provide support for bank card, bus ticketing, campus, corporate ID and membership card applications. Advertising and anti-counterfeiting applications will also be supported.

China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank as well as payments network China UnionPay are all working with China Mobile to introduce NFC payments.

Commercial services are due to begin in twelve Chinese provinces from February 2013. Eight NFC handsets will be available to subscribers at launch, the carrier’s Xiong Hui revealed last month.

Valuation

Yesterday in Hong Kong

Hong Kong shares closed 0.62 percent lower after losses on Wall Street as dealers grow concerned US lawmakers will not be able to find agreement on a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index slid 135.05 points to end at 21,708.98 on turnover of HK$46.74 billion.

Chinese shares closed down 0.89 percent at close to a four-year low. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 17.64 points to 1,973.52 on turnover of 34.5 billion yuan. The index is at its lowest since January 16, 2009.