This isn’t the first time analysts have poured cold water on China’s recent hot streak. Last week, Vincent Chan and Peggy Chan at Credit Suisse predicted a 10-15 per cent decline on the Shanghai market. Now Steven Sun, head of China equity strategy at HSBC, is doing the same.

Rising food prices, he says, look troubling - and outweigh the bullish signals of the Fed’s coming flood of cash.Thursday’s inflation print - at 4.4 per cent - was the starting pistol on a massive wave of selling on the Shanghai market. Friday saw the index lose over 5 per cent. Today, it rose, but only by 0.97 per cent and it remains the region’s worst performing index this year, under-performing its fellow big laggard, the Nikkei 225.

Sun says there is more to come, both in terms of inflation, and in selling of stocks.