Taiwan mulls tax cut to boost stock market …and perhaps economy
Rain washed out the inaugural anniversary celebration for Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou; forecasts for full-year economic growth are being cut; and two of the country’s fighter jets have crashed during training exercises in the last week.
But there could soon be at least one bright spot in the gloom for Taiwan. Legislators are trying to lighten an unpopular transaction tax that has weighed on the local market since it first passed last year. Continue reading »
Morocco gets ready for sukuk [updated]
By Chiara Francavilla of This is Africa
Morocco is finalising a new securitisation law that will allow the state and companies to issue sukuk, the Islamic equivalent of bonds. Preparations for a corporate and a sovereign sukuk are already underway, according to Islamic finance experts. Continue reading »
China’s new securities regulator has a China dream, too
When Xiao Gang, the new boss of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, used ‘China dream’ as the theme of his first public speech following his appointment back in March, he was making an obvious echo of president Xi Jinping’s evoctaion of a ‘China dream’. Xiao’s speech was published on CSRC’s website to just before China’s May 4th Youth Day.
However, whether Xiao really is a reformist remains to be seen. He certainly seems willing to continue the reforms started by his predecessor, Guo Shuqing. But progress will require something more practical than dreams. Continue reading »
China reforms: and the beat goes on
In the pantheon of financial news, China’s decision to open its interbank bond market to foreign investors may seem a small item. But the announcement, made on Wednesday, is a big one for two reasons.
First, it gives foreign institutions access to a major asset class. Second, its timing signifies that China’s financial reform train is still very much in motion just a few days after the dust finally settled on the country’s leadership reshuffle. Continue reading »
Peru’s capital markets “scarcely liquid” say finance minister
Peru is typically grouped with Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Chile as one of Latin America’s high-growth economies, a darling of international investors. But how easy is it to invest in? Not easy at all, says Luis Miguel Castilla, Peru’s finance minister.
“Our diagnosis is that our own capital market is poorly developed; not deep; scarcely liquid,” he tells beyondbrics. Continue reading »
Argentine markets: show us some love
Argentina has a problem: people save too much.
That, at least, is how the national stock market regulatory body sees things. Argentina is awash with pesos – some 380bn in bank deposits, for example – yet only 8 per cent of even the most educated social classes has ever invested in a market instrument. Continue reading »
Bombay bourse in alliance with S&P
A new alliance in the fast-moving world of stock exchange partnerships: the venerable Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has teamed up S&P Dow Jones Indices – and is marking the deal by giving its indices the prefix S&P. Continue reading »
South Korea braces for fallout from currency war
Global squabbles over exchange rates have emerged as a key concern for South Korea, as policy makers struggle to battle strong headwinds from Japan’s expansionary monetary policy.
A Bank of Korea report on Monday showed conflicts over currencies listed for the first time among the top five risks facing the country’s financial system, while concerns about China’s economic hard-landing and a delayed recovery in the US economy have subsided. Continue reading »
Korean covered bonds: false start?
Korea Housing Finance Corp will hit the road this week to sell a benchmark-sized international covered bond. It’s not the first such deal in this nascent market, but it’s certainly the most confusing. Continue reading »
By Tarik Kurbegović, chief executive, Sarajevo Stock Exchange
On the walls of the conference hall of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange hang copies of shares from the era when Bosnia was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. While this suggests a long tradition of capital markets culture, it does not, alas, reflect the true state of awareness among Bosnian citizens. We have started to work on improving the country’s financial literacy. But it will take time. Continue reading »
Kenya: a gem of a market move
The clang of a bell announced the launch of Kenya’s new small and midcap market segment on Tuesday, but its founders are determined that will be the only old-fashioned thing about it.
The Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS) could be the solution to several constraints on the growth of Kenya’s economy, which relies on small business for 40 per cent of the country’s $36bn GDP, and may provide the route for Kenyans to invest in the country’s nascent natural resource sector. Continue reading »
Turkey’s new Capital Markets Law: a lot of misunderstanding
Turkey might not be a country that tops the freedom of the press list. As a recent report on Turkey by the Committee to Protect Journalists suggests, the country does still have “issues” regarding the reporting of activities of Kurdish opposition groups in particular.
But that should be no excuse for the wholesale misreporting of the country’s new Capital Markets Law, complete with dire warnings that it contains clauses criminalising acts such as sloppy reporting or analysis and that journalists and analysts who provide “wrong or untruthful information” could face jail sentences of up to five years. Continue reading »
Guest post: In spite of EM bond boom, corporate credit is scarce
By David Creighton of Cordiant Capital
With record flows into emerging market bonds you could be forgiven for thinking growth economies were awash with credit, and that they had avoided the fallout from the eurozone crisis.
Unfortunately this is not the case. The benefits of the boom in EM bonds have not been evenly spread. Not only is issuing bonds an option available uniquely to the very largest class of emerging market enterprises, but these bond issuers are generally concentrated within limited geographies like Brazil, China and Russia, and in the energy, mining and telecom sectors. Continue reading »
Forget globalisation – it’s regional connections that are key
Globalisation isn’t as simple – or as flat – as you might think. It’s uneven and has been knocked by the financial crisis. In some ways, the world is becoming less globally connected and more regionally-orientated, in contrast to most assumptions.
That’s the findings of the global connectivity index created by academics from the IESE Business School, which sheds light on the current state of globalisation with interesting results. Continue reading »
Namibia: first “Springbok” bond?
It might be a small issue, but it’s a first: Namibia has issued a $96m bond denominated in South African rand, the first such bond issued by another sovereign.
The question is – what to call it? Continue reading »
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