China Banks Are Now Valued Like U.S. Banks at Depths of 2008 Crash

The biggest state banks have also beefed up support for the property sector, planning to extend at least $85 billion in net financing in the final four months of the year.

(Bloomberg) — Pessimism about China’s banking sector has reached an unprecedented level, even approaching the depths at which U.S. lenders traded during the 2008 financial crisis.

Shares of the four biggest lenders, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), are priced at near record low valuations of about 0.4 of book value in Hong Kong after a sector index weakened to an 11-year low. That depressed level roughly matches where investors priced JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. among others during the depths of the 2008 crash.