Retail stocks story an easy buy.

(From The Standard)

Byline: Vanson Soo

Retail stocks have been among Hong Kong's best performers this year, and there may be more good news up ahead for them as the economy continues to rebound and mainland tourists keep flooding in.

One of them is Sa Sa International, the main board-listed cosmetics retailer that sells two of every five bottles of perfume in Hong Kong. The company lost money a few years ago but made a dramatic turnaround when it recently reported a 121 per cent surge in profits for the year ended March. Its share price has risen 39 per cent so far this year, against a 3.5 per cent fall in the Hang Seng Index.

The company derived 60 per cent of its revenue from local consumers when it listed in 1997, and mainland consumers accounted for almost none of the rest. Seven years later, mainlanders were responsible for 35 cents of every dollar of sales last month.

``We also witnessed healthy growth in our shops at …