International News

Bloomberg The Indian government is trying to stop Reliance Industries Ltd from paring its assets including a plan to sell a 20% stake to Saudi Aramco, the Times of India reported. The demand was made in an ongoing court case against Reliance Industries and British Gas, the paper said. The government has sought to prevent the two companies from selling ...

Bloomberg It’s been a long week for the Shetty family. The billionaire clan behind hospital operator NMC Health Plc and financial services firm Finablr Plc has seen its fortune drop by about $820 million since short-seller Carson Block issued a report criticising the medical company’s accounts and disclosing a short position. NMC shares tumbled 32% in response to the report, ...

Bloomberg Southeast Asia is set for another year of low inflation, generating difficult choices for the region’s central banks. S&P Global Ratings sees inflation remaining below central bank targets in most cases in 2020, according to Shaun Roache, S&P’s chief APAC economist in Singapore. Policy makers may soon have to think about using tools other than interest rates to achieve ...

Bloomberg Google searches for “Operation Twist” surged in India after the central bank announced its version of the US Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary policy. Most searches for the term came from Maharashtra, the state that’s home to the financial hub Mumbai, and could climb through the day. The benchmark 10-year yield plunged following the RBIs announcement.

Bloomberg Japan’s cabinet approved a record budget for next fiscal year, with social security costs pushing up the bill for a government already struggling to rein in the developed world’s biggest public debt load. Spending by the Japanese government will increase by about 1.2% to 102.7 trillion yen ( in the year starting April, the Finance Ministry confirmed. Outlays on ...

Bloomberg Car tires helped make Thailand a $6 billion latex powerhouse. Now, the industry wants to plaster the plant material on faces and use it to stop coastal erosion in a makeover designed to keep more rubber profits at home. Thai rubber, which has traditionally ended up in foreign tires, gloves, and other manufactured products, is reeling from slowing car ...

Bloomberg Showa Denko KK, Japan’s No 3 diversified chemicals supplier, agreed to pay more than double its own market value to buy its bigger rival Hitachi Chemical Co, to scale up its lithium-ion battery and advanced materials businesses and keep pace with Chinese rivals. Tokyo-based Showa Denko offered as much as 964 billion yen ($8.8 billion) for all shares of ...

Bloomberg Japanese exports dropped for a 12th straight month in November, offering no clear indication yet of a pickup despite recent signs of green shoots in global manufacturing. The value of shipments overseas fell 7.9% in November from a year earlier, dragged down by sliding exports of cars and construction and mining equipment, data from the Ministry of Finance showed ...

Bloomberg A Chinese pipe maker endured a rollercoaster debut, finishing the day at a loss after almost doubling during its initial public offering in Hong Kong. Maike Tube Industry Holdings Ltd surged as much as 84% on Wednesday morning, before closing down 5.7%. It’s the latest example of a stock seeing wild swings in its Hong Kong debut. Snack Empire ...

Bloomberg NMC Health Plc said claims made by Carson Block’s Muddy Waters Capital LLC “appear principally unfounded,” after a report by the short seller sent shares tumbling the most on record. “NMC will review the assertions, insinuations and accusations made in the report, which appear principally unfounded, baseless and misleading, containing many errors of fact, and will respond in detail ...