India’s cheery shoppers
Despite the burden of rising food prices it seems Indian shoppers are increasingly cheery about their futures. At least that’s the view of MasterCard’s latest Worldwide Consumer Confidence survey.
The survey showed India’s consumers to be at their most buoyant since the drop precipitated by the global economic meltdown in 2008, as well as revealing Thais and Filipinos to be at their most confident for years. Continue reading »
Americas markets wrap: Chile rate hike boosts peso
Brazilian and Mexican indices gained on Thursday, but Chilean stocks fell ahead of a widely expected rate hike after the markets closed. Regional currencies firmed against the dollar as risk appetite picked up.
In Chile, the blue-chip IPSA index shed 1.3 per cent as consumer and construction companies fell while the peso firmed 0.9 per cent against the dollar. The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 3.5 per cent in a bid to rein in inflation. Continue reading »
Santander to cash in on Argentine boom
Spanish-owned Banco Santander has been having a busy few days in South America. It netted a sweet capital gain of €110m from the auction of 1.9 per cent of its stake in Banco Santander Chile, its Chilean affiliate, and has told the stock market in Argentina that it is planning a hefty capital increase.
El Cronista Comercial speculated that the bank was seeking to raise cash in emerging markets to avoid doing the same in troubled Spain after overall group net profit fell 8.5 per cent. Continue reading »
Deal of the day: French interest in Chinese cooking grows
By Francesca Ficai of mergermarket
The growing spending power of China’s middle-class has prompted France’s SEB International, the home appliance group with the Rowenta and Tefal brands in its portfolio, invest $520m to increase its stake in Supor, a top Chinese cookware maker.
SEB will raise its stake to 71.3 per cent from 51.3 per cent in a move that will allow the founding Su family to take cash out of the business and look for new opportunities. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: equities mixed
Central and eastern European stocks were mixed on Thursday, as easing fears about inflation were offset by increasing concerns about political unrest in the Middle East.
“CEE equities have strengthened in the last few days, helped by news that Chinese CPI was softer than expected by investors,” Koon Chow, senior emerging markets strategist at Barclays Capital, told beyondbrics. “This contributed to expectations in the market that monetary tightening might proceed at a measured pace and that global inflation trends can be a little less problematic.”
Clowning about in Brasília
Clowns are there to make you laugh but Tiririca, the only self-professed clown in Brazil’s Congress, may have got more laughs than he wanted when he accidentally voted against a crucial government bill in the Lower House on Wednesday night.
Tiririca (real name Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva) got more votes than any other congressional candidate in last October’s elections – more than 1.3m. But his candidacy raised serious questions, partly because he campaigned on a platform of ignorance (“Do you know what a congressman does? Neither do I!”) and partly because he was alleged to be illiterate – barring him from Congress under Brazilian law. Continue reading »
NYSE-Deutsche Börse: HK in view
When Duncan Niederauer and Reto Francioni, the heads of NYSE and Deutsche Börse, announced merger plans on Tuesday, they gave the usual line about “significant growth opportunities in Asia”.
But on Thursday the duo offered a tantalising clue to beyondbrics about what this could mean – and about possible future links with the Hong Stock Exchange.
Russian Railways: reform before sale
Vladimir Yakunin, the chief executive of Russian Railways, one of the country’s biggest companies and operator of the third longest rail network in the world, speaks to Neil Buckley, the FT’s eastern Europe editor, about why a stake in the government-owned company won’t be sold until at least 2013.
Bahrain: why it matters to Saudi Arabia
Bahrain’s military has just seized control of much of the capital after clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police. The violence has got many people outside the Middle East looking at the island state for the first time. But does it matter to business and investors?
The answer is yes. Not so much because Bahrain is a financial centre and home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. But because Bahrain has the potential – belied by its tiny size – to inspire political ructions in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer. That explains why the protests have exacerbated jitters in the Middle East’s already shaky stock markets. Continue reading »
China’s high spirits unwanted abroad
Any guest at a Chinese banquet will be used to the acrid smell of bai jiu – China’s favourite liqour. Demand for top-of-the-range bottles of the stuff, produced by Moutai, soared during Chinese new year. Moutai responded with a 20 per cent price hike in the domestic market.
But for those desperate to get hold of a bottle but without the necessary capital, all you have to do is get out of China, where prices are tumbling. Continue reading »
BlackRock bucks the trend in Brazil
Brazil, it seems, can’t do anything right. The government’s walkover victory in a crucial vote to restrain the national minimum wage on Wednesday night was one more demonstration of a commitment to fiscal austerity that investors just can’t bring themselves to trust. Figures out on Thursday from EPFR Global, which monitors fund flows, showed a rising preference for Brazilian bonds over equities as investors worry that slower growth will hurt corporate earnings.
But one of the biggest investors in Latin American equities disagrees. Will Landers, managing director for Latin America at BlackRock, which has $10.2bn under management in the region, is overweight Brazil and has been building positions as others pull out. Continue reading »
[Snap] Bahrain: military move in
The contagion of protest is spreading. In Bahrain on Thursday the army was deployed at key points in the capital, Manama, to end pro-democracy protests that escalated today after at least three demonstrators were killed.
The Gulf island state has virtually no oil of its own, but is linked closely politically and economically to other Gulf states that account for a big chunk of the world’s supplies. It is also home to the US Navy’s Fifth fleet. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: Mumbai leads gains
Mumbai led gains for Asian stocks on Thursday after the Federal Reserve raised its 2011 US growth forecast and corporate earnings were better than expected. Asian currencies were up against the dollar.
“Economic sentiment is improving and that is supporting the stock market,” said
Mitsushige Akino at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo. “Investors expecting stocks to rise further are increasing.” Continue reading »
New York headlines
* China January foreign direct investment rises 23%
* Vietnam hikes rates 200bps
* Protests spread to Libya as unrest roils Bahrain, Yemen
* China: New rules to regulate rare earth industry
* Shanghai forges bourse link with Brazil Continue reading »
China’s talent war: SOEs top multinationals
It used to be that bright young things straight out of Chinese universities would clamour for scarce jobs in the gleaming offices of the world’s shiniest multinationals. Creaking, old-fashioned, monolithic state-owned giants just didn’t have the same appeal.
For top managers the choice was even more stark. At a foreign company, the wages, the prospects , the opportunities were unbeatable. Cue the financial crisis, and now that’s all changed. Continue reading »
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