CP All and Siam Makro: Stock Exchange of Thailand to take a close look
Tens of millions of Thai baht worth of stock trades later, the shoe has finally dropped: the Stock Exchange of Thailand is launching a probe into share price movements of cash-and-carry retailer Siam Makro ahead of Monday’s $6.6bn takeover offer by CP All, the country’s biggest convenience store operator.
As beyondbrics noted, the market was buzzing with rumours for weeks before the announcement. Continue reading »
Bric stocks: their time will come (soon)
The underperformance of Bric equities is becoming an embarrassment for investors who are long – and for analysts who have been promoting the stocks. Not only have Bric shares lagged behind the developed world, they have been outpaced by small emerging markets, from Peru to the Philippines.
But one Bric bull who is sticking to his guns is Jonathan Anderson of Emerging Advisors Group. He says that it’s only a matter of time before Bric equities recover – and some of the headline-making small EMs come under pressure. Continue reading »
Philippines’ issue feels the love
Investors do love an emerging market success story.
A day after LT Group, the listed holding company of Lucio Tan, the Philippines’ second richest man, raised 37.7bn pesos ($920m) from a follow-on offering, its shares have risen 4 per cent. Continue reading »
Chart of the week: time for EM equities to bounce back?
The underperformance of emerging market equities in 2013 so far is something of a puzzle – with all that hot QE money around, shouldn’t EM stocks get a boost? Not so far this year. For EMs, it’s all been about debt.
But is that about to change? Chart of the week takes a look. Continue reading »
S Korea hopes for stimulus
Hopes are high in Seoul that the new government will unveil a stimulus package this week to kick-start the stalled economy.
Expectations of a supplementary budget worth about 10tn won ($9bn) helped drive the benchmark Kospi index up 1.8 per cent this week, after it fell to a five-week low on Friday on concerns over Cyprus. Continue reading »
Barclays on EMs: beware bears
Another bearish call on emerging markets, this time from Barclays.
The bank says that the “case for EM assets is becoming more challenging” as equities have disappointed while in fixed income expected returns have fallen and the risks have risen.
But don’t give up, says the bank in a report published this week. Look for opportunities in “idiosyncratic factors” in specific markets. 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 »
Poland: BZ WBK bank gears up for record share issue on WSE
A big potential burst of liquidity for the Warsaw Stock Exchange this week following a decision by Belgium’s KBC and Spain’s Santander to sell large stakes in Bank Zachodni WBK, Poland’s third largest bank.
The total transaction could be worth as much as 5.3bn zlotys ($1.69bn), in what would be a record share offering on the Warsaw bourse, according to Bloomberg. Continue reading »
On the face of it, Hong Kong’s market for new equity listings has perked up. Deal volume in the year to date is at its highest since 2010, while retail investors have finally returned. But, with many of the recent deals faring poorly in secondary trading, and China’s equity rally losing steam, the market for new offerings may stall before it gets out of first gear.
So far this year, Hong Kong has seen six deals, which have together raised $788m, compared with $452m by this time last year and $256m in 2011, according to Dealogic. Retail activity has also picked up, with heavy oversubscription in a number of this year’s offerings. Continue reading »
Russia’s image problem in the US
Chris Osborne, Head of Sberbank CIB USA, would be the first to admit that Russia has an image problem among American investors.
“Selling Russia can be a challenge,” he told beyondbrics. “For people who are not already investors in Russia, the image of the country is very negative.” Continue reading »
Chart of the week: EM shares – the cheap and the expensive
A hot topic of conversation this year has been the so-called ‘great rotation’: the idea that bonds have become over-expensive and we’re now due a mass switch by investors into equities. But on the whole, that’s less true of emerging markets than it is of developed ones.
Chart of the week takes a look at price to earnings ratios across the major emerging markets to see which EMs might or might not benefit. Continue reading »
Nigeria: hot money? No worries
Hot money are two words that would usually make central bankers cringe. Not in Nigeria though.
Even as foreign inflows into the country hit a two-year high in January, the central bank said it was not concerned about the risks arising from this potentially volatile influx – though that might change if flows continue to grow at their current pace. Continue reading »
Video: After the rotation?
Are the days of discerning investment returning as the risk-on, risk-off rollercoaster finally eases off? Larry Kantor, global head of research at Barclays suggests to Long View columnist John Authers that the opportunities now may be in European equities, and emerging market debt.
India lays out its bewildering stall to first-time retail equity investors
A glut of new investment products appeared in India over the weekend, designed to bring first-time retail investors into the country’s stock markets with a generous tax break. Good news, surely? Well, characteristically for India’s asset management industry, the truth is more complicated than it needs to be. Continue reading »
India’s MCX-SX: what’s it got?
The MCX-SX. Is it a dangerous chemical compound? A state of the art camera? Or a new type of heavy artillery? No, it’s India’s new stock exchange.
Beyond its slight tongue-twister of a name, though, will the MCX-SX offer anything of value? Continue reading »
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