Chapter 1448: Caught between a rock and a hard place

At noon, Li** accepted Liu Luanxiong's invitation to go to the latter's home for dinner, and after the meal, he planned to take a short rest before heading back to the office.

Liu Luanxiong was indeed a man with financial talent. Although he had entered the industry late, he was bold and meticulous, and was good at seizing opportunities.

So even though Li** already had his own securities company, he still entrusted Liu Luanxiong's securities company to help with this move.

On the way back, Li** and Liu Luanxiong rode together in the same car. The two men talked about the morning's stock market trends, and they couldn't help smiling.

'Mr Li, it looks like the bulls' defence is crumbling. If we short sellers act effectively, there is a good chance that the Hang Seng Index will fall below 1,500 points, and that could happen this week.'

After listening to this, Li** pondered for a moment before nodding: 'Indeed, judging from the situation this morning, the bulls really can't hold out much longer.'

Then he changed the subject.

'However, we still need to be a bit more stable. The bottom line for entering the market should be set higher, after all, the current situation in the UK is developing very delicately.'

'Although it doesn't matter what the outcome is if we can just stall for some more time, the key now is to grasp the timing.'

'The Rothschild family told us that there is no problem, but we need to be a bit more stable.'

Liu Luanxiong sighed: 'It seems that the news from my side is lagging a lot, and I will have to work hard to keep up with you in the future!'

'You're right, foreigners can't be trusted. Although we're on the same side as them, we have to retreat first, lest we be left behind to be cannon fodder.'

Li** added again, 'And we shouldn't be complacent either. Xia Yu and the others are extremely powerful. Their banks and financial companies have an unknown amount of capital. Although they are losing ground, they must have a plan to counterattack in the next stage. The lower the market falls, the more beneficial it is for them to counterattack!'

Liu Luanxiong nodded, thinking of Xia Yu's influence in the financial market of Xiangjiang. The pressure in his heart increased sharply, and he added, 'That's true. Xia Yu and the others must still have a lot of funds. This is an unknown and huge risk.'

Li**'s face eased slightly, and he told Liu Luanxiong, 'It's enough for the two of us to know about this matter. Don't spread the news yet. When the time is ripe, I will tell the others.'

Li** also wanted to look after himself first, but since he had entrusted Liu Luanxiong with some action plans, he could not hide it from Liu Luanxiong.

In that case, he might as well tell Liu Luanxiong frankly and bring this little brother along. After all, one more person like Liu Luanxiong would have no impact on his plan to leave the battlefield early.

However, this must be kept secret for the time being. After all, withdrawing from the battlefield prematurely is a behaviour that benefits the bulls but not the bears, and is a betrayal of the bears.

Now that the Rothschild family holds one-third of the shares of Cheung Kong Holdings, it will be very difficult for Li ** to get off the boat. So all he can do is withdraw prematurely without the Rothschild family knowing, so as to ensure that the profits from the short bet can be pocketed and secretly developed.

Liu Luanxiong's eyes flashed, and he gave an inexplicable smile, nodding emphatically and vowing, 'Mr Li, don't worry, you know me, I keep my mouth shut!'

'By the way, Mr Li, since we're pulling out early, what do you think about bottom fishing when the market first reaches 1,600 points?'

'It is very likely that the market will fall to 1,500 points. If we start bottom fishing at 1,600 points, there will be a buffer of 100 points, which is enough for us to complete the plan. After all, the later it gets, the slower the market will fall.'

Li ** would definitely take Liu Luanxiong's opinion into serious consideration, but he did not nod immediately: 'Let's see, this afternoon and tomorrow, we will gather people to focus on analysing the future trend of the market, and then we will decide depending on the situation.'

'Good.'

...

Li** and others, including Evelyn Lochhead, were all misled by the wrong market trend.

If Xia Yu was to counter-harvest them, he could not be extremely eager to buy at the lowest point.

After all, there were too many stocks for him to buy, and he could not pursue the peak profit of a single stock. Instead, he had to keep an eye on the total profit.

If the profit of a single stock was low, it would be low. As long as the quantity was up, the future profit would also be extremely considerable.

Soon, two hours had passed in the middle of the day.

At 2:30 pm the stock market reopened.

The market plunged as a whole, with the Hang Seng Index dropping 12 points straight away.

Then it plummeted even further.

The bulls, led by Xia Yu, continued to place buy orders to match the sell orders, buying large quantities of stocks.

However, because the buy orders were always slightly lower than the sell orders, the price of each stock continued to fall, driving the entire market down.

By the close of trading on Tuesday afternoon, the Hang Seng Index had fallen to 1824.9, and the accumulated trading volume for the day reached 41.82 billion Hong Kong dollars, higher than on Monday and slightly lower than on Friday.

However, because the prices of all the stocks in the market today were lower than on Friday, the actual trading volume today was actually higher than on Friday, but the trading volume appeared lower due to the stock prices.

On Wednesday, the market panic increased, with a daily trading volume of HK$45.94 billion and the Hang Seng Index falling to 1739.5.

It was only on Thursday that the situation became very tense. The bulls once again organised a massive counter-attack, and the Hang Seng Index briefly rose above 1750 points.

Although the Hang Seng Index fell again at the end of the day, closing at 1703.8,

it was still better than the previous day's 4.68% drop, with a loss of only 2.05%.

After the market closed that day, Liu Tianci reported the trading situation to Xia Yu. The trading volume that day was 45.29 billion Hong Kong dollars, slightly lower than that of Wednesday.

Together with the trading volume on Friday, the trading volume over the past five days had reached HK$216.09 billion.

The vast majority of the HK$200 billion-plus funds used to prop up the market came from Xia Yu and his allies, with the remainder coming from Hong Kong-based enterprises in the north or institutions that were firmly bullish.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange did not release specific data on the trading volume of over HK$200 billion over five working days, so external institutions could only estimate it, but the result was also shocking.

But that wasn't what worried the bears the most.

What worries them is that after manipulating the market for so many days, the bulls have not only been losing ground, but have also surprisingly managed to hang on and even have the energy to organise a counterattack!

The flood of panic that has been hard-won has been partially intercepted by the bulls, and the 'ammunition' of small and medium investors and retail investors in the market is running out.

The bulls are reluctant to sell, so the bears can't buy the stocks released by the liquidation of the bulls.

Li** and Liu Luanxiong are even more anxious. They were hoping to buy the bottom at 1600 points on the Hang Seng Index, but the bulls have been holding on, leaving them unable to advance or retreat.

In the UK, Evelyn Rothschild and Terence Waughberg also realise that something is wrong...