China Real Estate Information Plunged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of China Real Estate Information (NAS: CRIC) -- the Zillow (NYS: Z) of the Far East -- plunged as far as 10.5% today on surprisingly low volume for such a big move.

So what: The drop comes as Forbesreports rising home prices in China even as sales are slowing down, which is a deadly one-two punch for local real estate specialists. China Real Estate is taking the news harder than the competition as SouFun Holdings (NAS: SFUN) hardly moved and Sohu.com (NAS: SOHU) notched a respectable gain this morning.

Now what: One small-cap Internet company can't do much to fix a potentially broken Chinese housing market. Investors could cut down on their antacid bills by reaching for Chinese online stocks in more attractive sectors, however. Longtime Stock Advisor recommendation SINA (NAS: SINA) and Rule Breakers'Baidu (NAS: BIDU) or Sohu would be good places to start looking. Grab a free 30-day trial pass to any of our newsletters so you can check out why we love some Chinese Internet stocks -- but far from all of them.

Interested in more info on China Real Estate Information? Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Sohu.com, SINA, and Baidu. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.

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