The weakness in US financial markets has provided an opportunity for foreigners sitting on cash to pick up important assets. Yet the same process could also happen in China.
After a spectacular two-year boom, which saw share prices rise by more than six times, the Shanghai market is now in a six-month slump, which has knocked nearly half of the value off share prices. At some stages last year, mainland Chinese companies were trading at price-earnings ratios of nearly 70 times: now they are back to far more reasonable levels.
