Americas markets wrap: Chilean stocks hit new high, peso weakens ahead of Fed meeting
Brazilian and Mexican markets were closed for a holiday, while Chile’s blue-chip IPSA index hit a new all-time high and commodities prices rose ahead of tomorrow’s Federal Reserve decision. Chile’s peso weakened after the government took measures to curb its appreciation. Continue reading »
Turkey: mind your language
Turkish journalists are losing their jobs after criticising the government. YouTube may face yet another ban for posting material critical of Turkey’s founder. Are investors also going to have to watch their language if they buy into Turkish markets?
Mark Mobius, the emerging markets investor who runs the Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, may face an investigation into market manipulation by the country’s Capital Markets Board. Continue reading »
The impact of QE2 for emerging markets
By Ranjit Lall and Barney Jopson
Markets nervously await the Federal Reserve’s decision – to be reached at a meeting taking place today and tomorrow – on whether to launch a fresh round of quantitative easing. It will have crucial implications for the direction of asset prices in emerging markets. Continue reading »
Deal of the day: Thai sugar company heads to Australia
By Debbi Sutuntivorakoon and Andrew Cheng in mergermarket
Six months ago, mergermarket reported that Australia’s only listed sugar producer, Maryborough Sugar Factory, was a ripe acquisition target. Now Thailand’s largest sugar company – Mitr Phol – has now stepped in to take a 19.9 per cent stake. And, if the tactics of another Thai company are anything to go by, Mitr Phol may soon look to acquire the rest of Maryborough. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: Istanbul down; Warsaw at three-week high
Trading was mixed for the CEE region, as investors wait for the result of a two-day US Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow. Stocks on Moscow’s main index rallied despite an announcement from World Bank that it has cut its Russia growth forecast. Poland’s main WIG20 index rose to its highest point for nearly three weeks as higher-than-expected PMI data for October revealed output is growing at its fastest rate since 2004. In Istanbul, shares fell as BBVA bought a stake in one of the country’s largest banks. Continue reading »
Rousseff speaks on the currency war
Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president-elect, has made her first comments on the “currency war” since winning Sunday’s election. This is the war in which Brazil’s outgoing finance minister told us the world was engaged and Rousseff, broadly speaking, stuck to the policy line he set out.
In separate television interviews, she said that “manipulating” exchange rates cannot resolve anything, that she would not do anything that “created confusion”, and that international organisations such as the G20 should be strong enough to “force certain countries” to value their currencies realistically. Continue reading »
Booming Poland’s rate dilemma
Polish business dodged a bullet last month, when the central bank didn’t raise interest rates – on fears that doing so would further strengthen the zloty. But the bank may now be forced to act soon, because Poland’s economy is picking up speed.
New manufacturing numbers released on Tuesday show output growing by its fastest rate since 2004, while inflation is rising. And any monetary-policy response will have knock-on consequences for Poland’s debt burden. Continue reading »
Chinese health care: big opportunities
The Obama administration’s health care reforms have been a central part of the US political debate ahead of midterm elections on Tuesday. But for some US businesses it could be more productive to focus on an attempt to universalise medical coverage elsewhere – in China.
Government measures announced last year will “stimulate China’s health care market and create opportunities for private payers, providers, and IT vendors,” write consultants from McKinsey & Co. What’s more, they suggest that the health care industry might have that rare quality: an area of domestic consumption that grows faster that GDP. Continue reading »
Britain looks to EMs for growth
It’s not just large volumes of capital that have been flowing into emerging markets this year. Heavyweight western trade delegations have been showing up on the doorsteps of the Brics too, but their goal is not only to find new export markets for western products.
Some, including those from the UK, are equally keen on tempting emerging market companies to invest in the west. David Cameron, the British prime minister, will be making his way to China next week along with the biggest trade delegation to date. His first trip as leader was to India, which is where US president Barack Obama is heading to the weekend. Continue reading »
Algeria tightens grip on Orascom, sending shares tumbling
Algeria seems determined to prolong the agony of Egyptian mobile group Orascom Telecom. The authorities have already imposed tax bills on Orascom’s highly-profitable Algerian unit, Djezzy, while making clear they intend to nationalise it.
Now the government has hardened its position even further, saying it will not buy Djezzy until the company has paid all fines and liabilities imposed by the state. That may jeopardise the deal between Orascom’s owner Naquib Sawiris (pictured) and Russian group Vimpelcom, which is set to create the world’s fifth largest telecoms group by customers. Unsurprisingly, Orascom’s stocks are tumbling. Continue reading »
Abu Dhabi: farewell to another property CEO – and another football manager?
Roberto Mancini, the manager of Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City, is struggling to keep his job. After two bad results and a little player disunity, owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (pictured) might wave the manager goodbye – as he did last December to Mancini’s predecessor, who had failed to win trophies.
But if Mancini thinks Emirati bosses are too demanding, he should be glad he doesn’t work in Abu Dhabi’s property sector. Flagship developer Aldar Properties has announced the departure of John Bullough, its third CEO since it was founded six years ago. And the latest departure seems as premature as Mancini’s would be. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: Indian stocks fall
Indian stocks edged down 0.2 per cent on Tuesday, after the central bank raised interest rates for a sixth time this year. Other Asian markets also fell, with speculation of monetary tightening in China and continued global uncertainty ahead of central bank meetings in the US and Japan.
On the currencies market, the Indian rupee reversed Monday’s fall against the dollar; the South Korean won and the Philippine peso both rose strongly against the greenback. Continue reading »
New York headlines
*India raises rates to curb inflation
*Petronas to obtain up to $4.8bn in IPO
*ONGC eyes Angolan assets of Exxon and Total
*Argentine president resumes official duties
*China Construction Bank rights offer to raise $9.2bn
Mind the bump: Harley-Davidson comes to India
India is not a natural biker’s paradise, with its potholed roads, chaotic traffic and omnipresent wandering cows, as one motorhead has pointed out.
But there’s more upside than those disconcerting downsides, according to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US motorbike maker. It sees so much potential that it announced on Tuesday that it would open an assembly plant in India in the first half of 2011. Continue reading »
Further reading: Brazil, banks, bourses
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