Bloomberg After spending more than $6 billion to stem the exodus of foreign investors from Indonesian assets last month, Bank Indonesia has signaled it’s ready to splurge more to defend the nation’s battered currency and bonds. The central bank offered to buy sovereign bonds worth 2 trillion rupiah ($140 million) from the secondary market on Monday after the yield on ...
Read More »Blog Layout
RBA is all-but certain to cut key rate, money markets show
Bloomberg Australia’s central bank is all-but certain to cut interest rates on Tuesday, money markets show, after a key manufacturing gauge in top trading partner China slumped. Traders are pricing in a 25 basis-point cut by Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and his board as a done deal and see a slight chance of a 50 basis-point reduction. At the ...
Read More »Barclays activist opposes CEO’s nomination to the board
Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s board should remove its boss Jes Staley from the board of directors following the disclosure of his ties with deceased financier and offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to its top shareholder. Edward Bramson’s Sherborne Investors Management LP said in a letter on Monday it “strongly recommends†the board led by Chairman Nigel Higgins “rescind their unanimous recommendation to ...
Read More »Chinese biotech censured for false claim on Gilead’s drug
Bloomberg A Chinese biotech company which claimed to be able to manufacture an experimental drug from Gilead Sciences Inc with the potential to treat the novel coronavirus, was censured for disclosing inaccurate information. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said in an statement that BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Co has not gained approval from China’s drug regulator to make the drug known as ...
Read More »HK finance chief sees property holding up despite virus turmoil
Bloomberg Hong Kong will avoid the kind of property market crash that followed previous economic slumps in the finance hub, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan. “We do not see the risk of an off-the-grid type of downfall,†Chan said in an interview on Monday with Bloomberg Television’s Yvonne Man. As Hong Kong’s economy reels from the coronavirus outbreak that ...
Read More »SoftBank CEO faces tougher questions after market plunge
Bloomberg Masayoshi Son’s pitch to US hedge funds and financial institutions on the merits of SoftBank Group Corp just got harder, with a record market plunge that has made investors skittish and raised risks for its portfolio companies. The Japanese billionaire will be in New York for the first such meeting since the implosion of WeWork. In the months since, ...
Read More »Singapore commodities firm accused of fraud
Bloomberg Lenders have accused a Singapore commodities firm of fraud after a debt default left them facing potential losses on $600 million of liabilities. ING Bank NV alleged that Agritrade International Pte, its chief executive officer Ng Xinwei and his father Ng Say Peck misrepresented the company’s financial position to various bank lenders, in a filing to a Singapore court. ...
Read More »India’s Tata Motors sees domestic sales drop by 34% in February
Bloomberg India’s Tata Motors Ltd saw a 34% slide in domestic sales in February, as automakers were hit by the lack of supply of parts from China amid the coronavirus outbreak. Total domestic sales stood at 38,002 units last month, falling from 57,221 during the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement. Total sales were 40,634 ...
Read More »Power’s plunge boosts Nordic miners, splits cental bankers
Bloomberg The worst start to the year for Nordic electricity prices in more than a decade is delighting consumers, dividing central bankers and hurting utilities. Nordic futures have plunged by more than half this year, outpacing declines in everything from oil to US natural gas and agricultural commodities. The impact of that economic tailwind is likely to grow in the ...
Read More »Vietnam may back off from coal’s role in power generation
Bloomberg Vietnam may scale back a plan to boost coal’s role in its power generation as financial restrictions and local environmental concerns make it more difficult to build plants. The National Steering Committee for Power Development has recommended eliminating about 15 gigawatts of planned new coal plants by 2025 due to slow progress and the unwillingness of some regions to ...
Read More »