In China, land of red-hot stocks, B-shares are white-hot

SHANGHAI (AFP) — These days, Zhang Nin gladly sacrifices her short lunch breaks so she can queue up at the bank and buy US dollars for local currency.

The 24-year-old marketing executive at a Shanghai wine company needs the money to buy hard-currency B-shares, which recently have emerged as an even hotter commodity than the sizzling local-currency A-shares.

"I bought some B-shares on Tuesday and two days later they had risen by about 15 percent," she said. "That's amazing, as A-shares I bought three weeks ago only earned me about 20 percent of profit.

China's stock markets have skyrocketed in recent days and weeks, boosted by massive inflows of individual investor money.

But while the A-share market has boomed, retail investors have found that some B-shares issued by the same companies have risen even faster.

A-shares are denominated ...