Americas markets wrap: Manufacturing data and Brazil election lift stocks
Upbeat manufacturing reports from the US and China and advancing commodities prices lifted Latin American markets today, and investors in Brazil were cheered by president-elect Dilma Rousseff’s vow to tighten fiscal policy. Continue reading »
Brazil’s markets take election in stride
Now that Brazilians know who their next president will be, how are markets reacting to Dilma Rousseff?
Investors seem to be giving some credence to the president-elect’s pledge to curb spending, though trading has been light today ahead of a national holiday on Tuesday. Yields on interest-rate futures contracts have come down today, suggesting that investors are paring their expectations for the pace of future inflation (at least somewhat – traders are still betting that rates will rise in 2011). Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: Istanbul up; Mobius under investigation
Trading was generally subdued in Europe’s emerging markets on Monday, as investors awaited the results of the US Federal Reserve meeting later this week. Russia’s Micex was up, helped by rising commodity prices, while bank stocks lifted Turkey’s ISE 100.
Reuters reported that fund manager Mark Mobius, of Templeton Asset Management, is under investigation by Turkey’s capital markets watchdog, after he suggested the country’s stocks would fall 15-20 per cent by the end of this year. Continue reading »
Expropriate it! The Chávez approach to Venezuela’s housing shortage
What do a steel company, urban development projects and golf courses all have in common? They are three of the latest targets of Hugo Chávez’s nationalisation drive – and part of his plan for renewed popularity.
The background is a severe shortage of decent housing: over 2m homes are needed, by some counts, in a country of 28m people. Half of the population live in chaotic shanty towns, and they want change. Continue reading »
Chart of the week: Brazil’s shifting export structure
By Valentina Romei and Jonathan Wheatley
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will now hand power to his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff, at the end of 2010, but during eight years as Brazil’s leader he – like his predecessors – made it a priority to substitute high-value manufactured goods for low-value commodities.
But the chart (after the break) that is launching a new feature on beyondbrics shows the structure of Brazilian exports is shifting in the wrong direction: Brazil’s export earnings from manufactured goods continue to fall while those from primary goods continue to rise – and, this year, have taken over as the main source of earning for the first time. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: Shanghai at 6-month high on manufacturing data
Asian markets rallied on news of positive PMI figures from India and China published on Monday. The two countries showed a jump in manufacturing output for October, as rising demand put paid to speculation about an Asian slowdown.
The HSBC China manufacturing PMI rose to 54.8 in October, from 52.9 in the previous month, marking the biggest month-on-month rise since the index began in April 2004. The official purchasing managers’ index released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing rose to 54.7 from 53.8 in September. Shanghai’s Composite index soared 2.5 per cent on the news. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* China and India output jumps sharply
* ICBC takes over Fortis broker unit in US
* Chavez nationalizes Venezuelan steel company
* Rousseff wins Brazilian presidency
* India’s finance minister says RBI may take some steps to curb inflation
Reform now while the going’s good, OECD tells investment-rich Indonesia
Indonesia is on track to receive record foreign direct investment this year: in the three months through September, FDI rose nearly 14 per cent from a year ago to $4.4bn, and the full-year figure will probably beat the official target of $18bn.
But the head of the OECD is encouraging deeper reforms. “Indonesia is open for business, but we believe it could do more to realise its full potential as host to foreign investment,” said Angel Gurría, who was in Indonesia on Monday, launching a report on Indonesia’s investment prospects. Continue reading »
Vietnam: no need for another devaluation, says ADB
Vietnam’s authorities have already devalued the country’s currency twice this year, and they’re now scrambling to avoid doing so a third time – tinkering with gold regulations, and trying to control inflation in order to prop up the dong. The markets are so far unconvinced, but the authorities’ actions do at least have the backing of the Asian Development Bank.
The ADB’s president, Haruhiko Kurdoa, told beyondbrics during a trip to Hanoi that he was confident that the Vietnamese economy would continue to recover strongly without “intensified inflation pressures”. Continue reading »
Further reading: debt, micro & macro
From the FT:
From elsewhere:
India’s microfinance crisis: the Rahul Gandhi factor
Rahul Gandhi, the presumed heir to India’s Congress party, may be media-shy, but he already enjoys a quiet, behind-the-scenes potency. And in India today, very little seems to escape association with him.
So it is with the microfinance crisis rocking the southern, Congress-ruled state of Andhra Pradesh. After several struggling micro-borrowers committed suicide, public outcry forced the state government to rein in lenders. Now some microfinance executives are arguing the crisis is politically motivated, designed to embarrass the young Gandhi. Continue reading »
Since the Palestine stock exchange opened in 1997, it has experienced volatility on a grand scale – not least because of the Second Intifada and the division of the Palestinian territories into Gaza and the West Bank.
Now the bourse has some better news – a subsidiary of Qatar Telecom’s Kuwaiti arm, is planning to list. That should test the interest of western investors in the local exchange, which has held road shows in London, New York and even Chile, which has a large Palestinian community. But the key participants in the listing are likely to be investors from the Gulf. Continue reading »
Fund file: Journey to the West redux
In the Buddhist myth, the Monkey and his fellow pilgrims journeyed west from China in search of spiritual enlightenment. Now China’s largest fund management company, China Asset Management Company, is travelling on the same compass bearing, but in search of growth of an entirely temporal nature.
The Beijing-based fund manager is hoping to drum up investors from other Asian countries, Europe and the US, by touting the benefits of its boots on the ground in the Middle Kingdom, writes Steve Johnson in Monday’s FTfm. “We would like to offer the international community the chance to invest in China with the real local experts,” says Iris Chen, managing director of China AMC’s Hong Kong-based arm. Continue reading »
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