A private company in China with a name that riffs on “Trump Victory” surged by ten percent in value on Monday and Tuesday, even as blue-chip stocks on the Chinese market slid by up to one percent.
The stock in question is for a company called Wisesoft in English, whose Chinese name is “Chuan Da Zhi Sheng.” The name becomes something of a pun in Mandarin Chinese, because it sounds like “Trump Victory,” or more precisely, “Trump Wins Big.”
Chinese investors are fond of choosing obscure stocks based on their amusing names, or “meme stocks,” as analysts call them. At the dawn of the Year of the Dragon in 2023, stocks whose names alluded to dragons sold extremely well.
“It’s fair to say that China’s stock market still lacks maturity, and investors often act irrationally,” market researcher Wang Zichen sighed to the Hindustan Times on Wednesday.
The “Trump Wins Big” stock definitely seems to sell more briskly when Chinese investors are feeling bullish about Donald Trump’s political fortunes. The stock exploded in value when Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign, for example. It surged again in October when Trump’s social media company reportedly surpassed Elon Musk’s X in market valuation.
“The stock has doubled to 19.98 yuan (US$2.80) over the past month, against an around 20 per cent rise of the index on China’s stimulus plan,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Tuesday.
Sadly for Wisesoft’s investors and management, the company’s actual products do not ride Donald Trump’s coattails. Wisesoft makes computer hardware and software for air-traffic controllers. About 90 percent of its customers are in China. The company has been posting quarterly losses for years, including a $3.8 million loss for the first nine months of 2024.
