International Business Research; Vol. 13, No. 10; 2020 ISSN 1913-9004 E-ISSN 1913-9012 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 31 Quantitative Analysis of the Value Investments of Listed Companies in China’s Mining Industry Tao Zhu 1 , John Walsh 2 , & Fuangfa Ampornstira 3 1 Doctoral Candidate, School of Management, Shinawatra University, Thailand 2 Senior Program Manager and Lecturer, International Business, School of Business and Management, RMIT, Vietnam 3 School of Management, Shinawatra University, Thailand Correspondence: John Walsh, International Business, School of Business and Management, RMIT, Vietnam. Received: July 7, 2020 Accepted: August 28, 2020 Online Published: September 11, 2020 doi:10.5539/ibr.v13n10p31 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v13n10p31 Abstract Value investment (VI) has been widely studied and applied to many fields of stock market analysis. It involves the identification of under-priced stocks for possible purchase and subsequent resale. In this paper, quantitative methods are employed to examine the extent and nature of VI in China’s mining industry. The research aims to discover the relationships between return on investment (ROI) and the historic financial indices documented in financial statements, while also examining the extent of the influence of VI on ROI in the Chinese mining industry. Keywords: China, mining industry, quantitative analysis, ROI, value investment 1. Introduction 1.1 Status Quo of the Chinese Stock Market and Listed Companies in the Mining Industry The Chinese economy has grown at a fast pace since market opening and the reform policy was launched in 1979. By comparison, China’s stock market has performed poorly compared with economic fundamentals because of serious distortions in prices. There is no clear statistical relationship between growth in the economy as a whole and the performance of the stock exchange. Compared to stock markets in, for example, the USA and Hong Kong, China’s stock market has been experiencing long-run consolidation amid drastic fluctuations. Although stock market performance has been problematic over the past decade or so, it has been particularly anemic in China because of the contrast with robust GDP growth over the same period (e.g. Russolillo, 2020). Is it possible to identify the reasons for that poor performance in such a way that it provides lessons for future growth? To try to answer this question, one important sector of the Chinese stock market is selected, the mining sector, since the performance of this sector is directly related to fundamental national economic performance and some of the volatility of international transactions is removed. According to the newest standards on the classification of industry in the Chinese stock market (as of 31 st December 2019) released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Chinese listed companies in mining industry comprised 78 entities (see Table 1 below). Table 1. Basic Information on Chinese Listed Companies in Mining Industry Listing Periods Number ROI (2016-2018) Number %age Less than 6 years 10 Positive 18 26.5 Over 6 years 68 Negative 50 73.5 Total 78 Total 68 100.0 Source: Adapted by Authors from Stock Market Information In Table 1 above, the listing periods of the companies involved are divided between less than and more than six years, while the overall results of return on investment (ROI) from 2016-18 are also listed. As can be seen, these results were far below the presumed expectations of investors, especially given the intensive drive in building