Bloomberg Thailand’s booming property market is at risk of cooling this year as rampant construction threatens an oversupply of apartments amid increasing global economic headwinds. The country has been a relative bright spot in an otherwise lackluster Southeast Asian real estate market. Thai residential property has experienced substantial growth in recent years, much of it fueled by buyers from China, …

Bloomberg Tech stocks are bouncing back. But distaste for what was the market’s favourite group as recently as last summer is starting to spread among large swaths of money managers. Headed into the heart of earnings season, hedge funds cut their industry exposure to the lowest level since July 2016, client data compiled by Goldman Sachs showed. Meanwhile, investors have …

Bloomberg Most Middle Eastern stock indexes rose as investors tracked full-year earnings and merger deals. Egypt’s main gauge advanced to its highest level since November. Global Telecom Holding added 10 percent after majority shareholder Veon Ltd. offered to support the company’s funding requirements and look at taking it private. Ahli United Bank shares in Bahrain and Kuwait rose after Kuwait …

Bloomberg A Philippine fund manager that made money amid the 2018 equity meltdown is now looking for new horizons. Michael Garcia, the CEO  and chief investment officer of MBG Capital Inc. in Manila, wants to apply his expertise of Philippine shares to Vietnam and Myanmar. While considered frontier markets, he says they offer investment themes similar to the ones he’s …

Bloomberg The Trump administration is considering taking steps to limit the ability of states to block interstate gas pipelines and other energy projects, according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The effort, possibly done through an executive order, is aimed chiefly at states in the Northeast US, where opposition to pipeline projects has helped prevent abundant shale gas in …

Bloomberg Oil explorers expanded drilling in US fields for the first time this year as rising crude prices buoyed optimism. The number of rigs targeting oil in the country rose by 10 this week to 862, according to data released by oilfield-services provider Baker Hughes. The hike only partially reversed the worst setback for American exploration in almost three years. …

Bloomberg First came a sweeping government crackdown and a surge in defaults and failures at thousands of China’s peer-to-peer lenders. Now, in another troubling sign for the industry, some of the biggest investment banks have stopped taking them public. Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc walked away from US initial public offerings of Chinese P2P …

Bloomberg Yi Huiman, a banking veteran who most recently chaired China’s largest lender, was named head of the country’s securities regulator, a role that puts him at the forefront of opening up the financial system to overseas firms. Yi, 54, will replace Liu Shiyu, who ran the China Securities Regulatory Commission for three years, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing …

Bloomberg Cerberus Capital Management and Centerbridge Partners filed an 11th hour joint bid for a minority stake in ailing German lender NordLB, people familiar with the offer said. The rival private equity investors decided at the last moment to team up, submitting an undisclosed offer for 49.8 percent of the core assets of the regional wholesale bank after last night’s …

Bloomberg South Korea’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged in the face of rising risks while pushing back against suggestions it may lower borrowing costs before too long. All but one of 25 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast the Bank of Korea would keep the seven-day repurchase rate at 1.75 percent, while one projected a 25-basis-point cut. …