| Abstract | Barbecued bear remains on the menu in Hong Kong and New York as traders agree that it is going to be different this time - share prices wil go up forever. The local bourse shows no sign of altitude sickness at its perch well above 13,000 on the Hang Seng Index. A few nervous nellies are worried that the market is selling at a nail-biting 14 times 1997 profits. According to the International Broker Estimate Service, the consensus is that earnings per share will grow a previously unsuspected 16 per cent in 1997. Some brokers will have put bits of paper bearing various numbers into a hat, and invited the switchboard lady to pick one out. But others will have goosed their computer models by feeding in escalating real-estate prices, projecting higher profits for the developer barons. |
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