Mainland food and beverage stocks sank yesterday after Beijing imposed curbs on their prices to combat rising inflation, and analysts said investors would continue to be unnerved by potential further measures.
The National Development and Reform Commission on Wednesday capped prices on a range of products including grain, meat, milk, edible oil, eggs and liquefied petroleum gas.
It requires 12 major food and beverage companies including Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holdings Corp, China Foods, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, China Mengniu Dairy and Uni-President China Holdings to seek approval for any price rises.
'The price intervention will have a negative impact on food and beverage companies since they are facing mounting pressure from rising prices of raw materials, but can't pass them on to end users,' said Chen Xun, an analyst at Ping An Securities.
Shares in recently listed Uni-President, the mainland branch of Taiwan's largest food and beverage conglomerate, slumped 12.2 per cent to HK$4.82, while Tingyi, an instant noodle and sweetened tea maker, declined 7.65 per cent to HK$10.62.
Three top milk producers also fell, with Mengniu diving 8.47 per cent to HK$22.70 and Shanghai-listed Yili and Bright Dairy dropping 6.54 per cent and 5.52 per cent, respectively.
