NEW YORK, April 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S.-listed Chinese stocks are appealing to investors as Wall Street chases after companies that do business in an economy with sustained growth, an experienced trader at the New York Stock Exchange said Tuesday.
"Most people here in the United States are very interested in Chinese growth. It's been a story that's enamored U.S. investors for a long time," said Mark Otto, who has been trading Chinese stocks for more than a decade during his 25-year experience at the New York Stock Exchange, in an interview with Xinhua.
The tech-related sector is widely viewed as tied to Chinese growth, which traders can equate to U.S. Silicon Valley stocks, making it "probably the most popular watched sector out of China," according to Otto.
"The top performing China-based U.S.-listed tech stocks are seeing returns that are more than double the returns of the S&P 500 year to date," the veteran stock broker noted.
As of Monday's close, JD shares are up 47 percent year to date, and Alibaba has posted a 36-percent gain this year, among the best-performing Chinese stocks in U.S. exchanges.
The transportation sector, particularly airline stocks, also reported excellent yield in the year to date, said the experienced trader, adding that investors are expecting education and bio-tech stocks to unlock solid gains.
Meanwhile, the longtime China stock watcher called the solar sector "higher beta" with great volatility.
As of Monday, the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index, which tracks the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges by total market cap, stood at 3,029.16, marking a 5.42-percent increase for the month-to-date returns and a 32.20-percent gain for the year-to-date returns.
"The market is usually forward-looking, so it actually is moving in reaction to what's going to happen to the economy in the next quarter or in the next half a year," Otto said.
Investors are optimistic about the outlook for growth momentum in the world's second-largest economy, experts noted.
"China is set to be a key turnaround story this year," analysts at BlackRock wrote in their Q2 2019 Global Investment Outlook. "We are increasingly confident that Chinese growth is likely to reaccelerate from the second quarter onward."
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday revised up the 2019 growth projection for China to 6.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from its previous estimation in January.
