Bloomberg Australia’s central bank maintained its policy settings as it prepares to decide on extending its yield target and quantitative easing programs, with a Covid-19 lockdown complicating the outlook. The Reserve Bank of Australia kept the cash rate and three-year yield target at 0.10% in Sydney on Tuesday, as expected. It will make a decision in July on whether to ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong urged all banks to “strongly encourage” staff in client-facing roles or support functions to get vaccinated as the city struggles with local resistance to its free rollout. Banks should “identify and draw up a list of designated staff expected to receive inoculation,” Hong Kong Monetary Authority Deputy Chief Executive Arthur Yuen said in a circular to financial ...

Bloomberg A hot equity market in India is prompting HDFC Bank Ltd to try to muscle in on the action as companies raise record levels of funding. The government has flooded the market with money in response to one of the world’s worst outbreaks of coronavirus, pushing stocks to dizzying levels and helping companies to boost capital buffers. Despite being ...

Bloomberg The Kazakh bank that received one of the country’s biggest bailout packages in recent years has paid out about $430 million in dividends, including from profits booked before the rescue. First Heartland Jusan Bank, known as Tsesnabank before it was bought by a fund set up by leader-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev, resumed payouts in 2020, regulatory filings show. In 2018 ...

Bloomberg Bank of Baroda plans to raise 50 billion rupees ($690 million) from sales of shares and bonds after posting an unexpected loss in fourth quarter. India’s state-run lender’s borrowing plan includes raising as much as 20 billion rupees through a sale of shares and up to 30 billion rupees via bonds that qualify as capital, according to an exchange ...

Bloomberg A proposal by the Swedish central bank intended to address liquidity shortages in the country’s corporate bond market has been met with disbelief by a number of asset managers. The Riksbank last week repeated its call to improve the market’s functioning but added a new demand: revise the regulatory framework so corporate bond funds “cannot offer daily redemptions,” according ...

Bloomberg Stocks rise with US equity futures, and commodities including oil jumped, as a string of positive economic readings spurred optimism in the recovery from the pandemic. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 1%, led higher by cyclical shares, as data showed that euro-area factories are struggling to keep up with surging demand and joblessness in Germany fell. Reports signaling ...

Bloomberg Singapore government bonds beat their biggest developed-market peers in May as a flare-up in virus infections in the city state fostered demand for haven assets. The securities gained 1.1% last month, a performance which trails only that of South African, Mexican and Indonesian bonds among 30 of the world’s largest debt markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fifteen- ...

DUBAI / WAM HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered an aid flight to transport much needed cholera kits from the World Health Organisation’s logistics hub in Dubai to Bangladesh to assist the country in combating an escalating cholera outbreak. Under His Highness’s directives, the International Humanitarian City (IHC) in ...

Bloomberg Oil advanced ahead of an Opec+ policy meeting as traders expect rising demand to absorb a planned production increase from the group as well as any additional crude from Iran. Futures in New York climbed past $67 a barrel, putting crude on track for a second straight monthly gain. Opec and its allies are expected to stick with a ...