Every shoe fetishist knows that the optimum number of shoes is n + 1, where n is the current collection size, even if finances sometimes curb formula fulfilment. Shoe retailers have long been a proxy for China’s consumers – who now own as many pairs as some of their developed market cousins. The shoe-owning formula, meanwhile, does not necessarily apply to shops. Belle International is a case in point.

China now owns six pairs of shoes per capita – more than Japan (five) and the same as Taiwan, but still far short of the 11 owned by the average Briton, according to Nomura. Overall, footwear sales there have been rising by an average annual compound rate of 10 per cent for a decade, compared with about 4 per cent in the US. At Belle, which targets mid-market female shoe lovers, sales have grown by an average one-quarter a year since it listed in 2007. The strategy has been simple: shops mean sales and thus outlets have trebled.

Sales grew just 11 per cent year-on-year in the first half. That was enough to make Belle the best performer in the Hang Seng on Monday, up 5 per cent, but it is still the second-worst performer year to date. Falls that bad suggest bigger investor concerns.