China becomes a player in console games

Hello, this is Kenji from Hong Kong.

We're in the midst of the twice-a-year corporate earnings rush. The first one comes in March, when companies announce their full-year results, while this one is for interim results -- the local exchange here doesn't require quarterly reporting. As the deadline to disclose midyear earnings for most listed companies comes at the end of the month, the final two weeks of August become a traffic jam of earnings releases.

While stock markets in Hong Kong and in mainland China have been responding strongly to the ups and downs of the results coming out each day, a similarly large shock wave hit a group of shares in Shenzhen and Shanghai seen as having links to Chinese video game Black Myth: Wukong.

The title has been well received, not only in China but also overseas, and investors are keen to snap up "Black Myth concept shares." Shanghai-listed Zhejiang Publishing & Media spiked 10%, hitting the daily limit for gains, on Tuesday, the day the game was released. The company's response to investors the day before briefly explaining that its subsidiary is in charge of the content, publishing and application process for the game, sparked heavy buying that continued on Wednesday.

Companies only linked to the game indirectly or by media reports also benefited. In Shenzhen, CITIC Press Group and Qitian Technology Group each shot up 20% on Tuesday, the daily limit for companies that went public under the new registration-based IPO system introduced four years ago. Meanwhile, Huayi Brothers Media Corp.'s accumulated share price increase of more than 30% in two days triggered the exchange's disclosure obligation on Tuesday.

While this kind of extreme market reaction is usually transient, it also hints that