China Stock Tax Fee Hike

"6" is also a "lucky number"...

Greenspan's comment on may 23 about the climb in stocks being unsustainable, drove Asia's richest man Li- Ka-Shing to reply " the market must be a bubble" , also the Peoples Bank Of China governor Zhou expressed the same concern a couple of weeks earlier

Companies in China last year earned a total profit of 1.88 trillion yuan, according to the statistics bureau, compared with total shares sales of 197 billion yuan.

Investors on May 28,2007 opened 455,111 new accounts to trade mainland shares, including mutual funds, bringing the total to 100.3 million, according to the China Securities Depository & Clearing Corp. Over 20 million accounts have been opened at brokerages so far this year, four times the amount in the whole of 2006, according to the clearing house. ...Taking these factors into effect ....China's government has tripled the stamp duty on the trading of shares in what analysts say is a bid to cool the country's overheated stock market specifically for speculators. The tax will rise from 0.1% to 0.3% with immediate effect, Beijing said.

I am guessing that the number 8 is "luckier" than 6 though? Anybody able to confirm this?

I wonder what effect a crash in China will have on the US market? There will definitely be some correlation and co-movement but I'm not familiar enough (yet) with those market dynamics to make an educated comment.

Many Chinese believe in lucky numbers, usually based on the pronunciation of the number itself.

1: can mean unity
2: easy
3: live
4: considered bad omen
5: me, myself
6: easy and smooth
7: together
8: sudden fortune, prosperity
9: long in time

48: 4 sounds like 'death', when placed in front of the prosperous 8 becomes 'determined to prosper'.

518: I will prosper

5189: I will prosper for a long time

516289: I will get on a long, smooth prosperous road

5918: I will soon prosper

168: a road of prosperity or be prosper together. Many areas in China, charged telephone service numbers starts with 168 (similar to 900 number in U.S.)

289: Easy long-term prosperity, mostly in south east China and Hong Kong

So do you think that if I floated a company called "516289 Inc" on the NYSE that I would attract a lot of investors from China?

Yes, Fengshui Investors especially.
The number 4 is so dreaded that most buildings don't have a fourth floor.
It is no coincidence that the Summer Olympics in Beijing will open on 8/8/08 at 8 p.m.
Witness the 9,999 rooms of Beijing's Forbidden City.