Daily Archives: December 8, 2010

A group of protesters carry posters of Michel Martelly as they parade on the street in Pettion Ville, HaitiThe situation developing in Haiti does not look promising. With serious outbreaks of violence across the country in protest against “massive fraud” in the recent presidential elections, those that hoped the vote might produce the strong government that is so desperately needed to haul Haiti out of the ditch could be disappointed.

The multiple consequences of an unstable government that neither Haitians nor the international community regard as legitimate are almost too dismal to contemplate. But there is no question that the reconstruction process to which international donors have pledged to contribute almost $11bn will suffer. Continue reading »

Nineteenth Street – a thoroughfare in the centre of Bogotá – is better known to drug addicts than investors. But that may change with a project to build Colombia’s tallest building on the street. Known as BD Bacatá, it’s seeking $180m of investment, giving Colombians a very visible alternative to stocks and bonds.

Rodrigo Nino of the Prodigy Network, which is in charge of sales, says the project has received $14m in the first two months of offering. At that rate, the book would be closed ahead of planned completion in 2013. Continue reading »

Brazil's BovespaSoaring US Treasury yields weighed on riskier assets today as investors weighed the Obama administration’s tax cut deal. Brazilian stocks fell the most in two weeks as inflation accelerated in October at the fastest pace since April 2005, fueling speculation over an interest rate hike later today. Homebuilders and banks fell, while steelmakers and miners slumped as the stronger dollar and concerns over monetary tightening in China hit commodities.

Mexico’s IPC index also fell, with shares of Walmart de Mexico hit by disappointing same-store sales figures. Chilean markets were closed for a holiday. Continue reading »

Russia led falls for central and eastern European stocks on Wednesday, as declining oil prices and speculation of an interest rate hike in China hit investor confidence. The Micex slipped by 1.6 per cent, while indices in Turkey, Poland and Czech Republic recorded more modest losses.

“China has spooked the market,” Tom Mundy, chief strategist at Otkritie Financial, said. “We have seen some profit-taking with oil and copper coming off their highs.” Continue reading »

Shanghai and Beijing are often used as shorthand for Chinese growth. Yet as a 250-page report by HSBC Global Research argues, the country’s economic miracle has not been confined to the megacities. Rather, it is being driven by a broad range of China’s 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. If westerners haven’t heard of many of these, they soon will: HSBC predicts that by 2020 China will have no less than six provinces with an annual gross domestic product the size of Russia. Continue reading »

Vale sells an awful lot of iron ore in China, so why not sell its stocks there, too? As of Wednesday morning, it does. The world’s second biggest mining group by market cap and the biggest producer of iron ore listed its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the form of Hong Kong Depositary Receipts (HDRs).

The move won’t bring in any new capital for the Brazilian mining giant. But it will make it easier for Chinese and other Asian investors to buy and sell its stocks – which are already traded on the BM&FBovespa in São Paulo, the NYSE in New York and NYSE Euronext in Paris. With the addition of Hong Kong, the shares are now available almost 24 hours a day. Continue reading »

John Godson (pictured) has become Poland’s first black member of parliament, a sign of the ethnically more complex future that awaits the country.

Godson, born in Nigeria as Godson Chikama Onyekwere, came to Poland in 1993 as a protestant missionary. He married a Pole and now lives in the central Polish city of Lodz, where he ran a church and a language school before winning a seat on the city council as a member of the ruling Civic Platform party. Continue reading »

At the climate talks in Cancún, Chinese delegates often point to their country’s success in achieving a 20 per cent reduction in energy intensity in the last five years. The target was self-imposed and Chinese delegates stress that point to back up their opposition to binding international targets.

The energy target was part of China’s 2006-2010 five year plan, and the latest version of the Soviet-style document has just been issued. But will the new one be as successful as the last? Not necessarily, says a recent report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and the reason is inflation. Continue reading »

India’s Nuclear Power Corporation is a sleepy public utility that runs 17 atomic plants not very efficiently. Last year, it made headlines for the wrong reasons, when an act of apparent sabotage at one plant put the whole country on high alert. Prime minister Manmohan Singh also frequently laments that Asia’s third largest economy only produces just 3 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power.

Areva, France’s state-owned nuclear power company, wants to change all that. Amid a $9bn deal with NPCIL, it has big ambitions for the Indian giant, possibly bigger than the company has for itself. It’s offering NPCIL investment opportunities in its global mining operations, which span more than half a dozen countries from Niger to Kazakhstan. Continue reading »

The turreted roof of Haydarpasha station, the starting point of the Istanbul-Baghdad railroad, long featured in Turkish films as the first landmark rural migrants saw when they arrived to make a new life in the city.

After a fire destroyed the roof on November 28, the charred silhouette might instead stand as a symbol of changing habits that have emptied Turkey’s railway stations – as a plethora of budget carriers brings air travel within reach of all but the poorest. Continue reading »

By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok

Despite the help of Aung San Suu Kyi and Bill Clinton, the Thai film industry is struggling. Luc Besson’s Dans la Lumiere – a biopic about the life of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader – is being filmed in Thailand and Clinton passed through to shoot a cameo role in the Hollywood movie The Hangover II, part of which is set in Thailand.

However, the celebrity support has not stopped a decline in Thai film-making, with producers going elsewhere in the region for their locations and tax-breaks. Continue reading »

Carmaking in South Africa has long been a tricky business. The country wants to diversify away from mining, has a domestic market of reasonable size, and sufficient skilled labour. But, in the global context, it is an also-ran – remote from the big markets that really matter.

However, one company that has long thought that the advantages outweight the disadvantages is Daimler, the German group, which has announced plans to inject $290m into its South African plant over the next four years. Continue reading »

* US praises China’s approach to trade talks

* Renminbi falls after US tax deal

* Pressure rises on climate change negotiators

* KFC to double outlets in Africa by 2014

* Citigroup plans major expansion in China

* India to relax retail restrictions soon Continue reading »

Asian stocks slumped on Wednesday, ending their five-day rally, on fears that Chinese authorities will hike interest rates this weekend. Indices in China, Hong Kong and South Korea fell sharply, while only those in Malaysia and Indonesia recording gains. On the currencies market, the Indonesian rupiah lost 2 per cent against the dollar.

“Investors will be very cautious before this weekend pending the announcement of November inflation and a possible interest-rate hike,” said Li Jun, a strategist at Central China Securities in Shanghai. “Uncertainty is about to peak and this may drag the market down.” Continue reading »

Turkey’s stock market has been one of the strongest performers among emerging economies this year as the country bounces back from a recession. The country has even been praised as “Europe’s Bric” by the British prime minister. In the FT’s View From The Markets video, Tevfik Aksoy, a senior economist at Morgan Stanley, talks to Barney Jopson of beyondbrics about Turkey’s prospects.

Global equities macromap

Number of the day

11% Quarter-on-quarter GDP growth in Thailand, as the economy bouces back after the 2011 floods.

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