October, 2019

• 15 October

  Paytm nears SoftBank, Ant fundraising at $16bn valuation

  

  Bloomberg Paytm is close to scoring $2 billion of new financing from investors including Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and SoftBank Group Corp, a person familiar with the matter said, describing a mega-deal that will raise the temperature in India’s increasingly heated financial payments arena. Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management is also in discussions to join a funding round that values ...

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• 15 October

  Stocks gain as earnings for third quarter roll in; Treasuries rally

  

  Bloomberg US equity-index futures rose with stocks in Europe as major Wall Street names began reporting earnings for the third quarter. Contracts on the S&P 500 trimmed some of their advance and Treasuries rallied as Bloomberg reported China may struggle to buy the volume of American goods proposed in the “phase one” trade deal. The three main American equity indexes ...

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• 15 October

  Pound rebounds after EU sparks hopes for ‘Brexit’

  

  Bloomberg The pound climbed towards a three-month high after European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier rekindled optimism for a Brexit deal before the week is out. Sterling is leading gains among of Group-of-10 currencies, after Barnier said a deal is possible this week but talks remain tough. Options prices showed that investors are positioning for further wider swings in the ...

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• 15 October

  South Korea speeds up plans for autonomous, electric cars

  

  Bloomberg South Korea unveiled plans to speed up the adoption of electric cars, self-driving vehicles and even flying automobiles in the coming years to help revive a sagging economy. President Moon Jae-in said in a speech on Tuesday Korean companies will invest 60 trillion won ($50 billion) over the next decade into the future of transportation. The government will spend ...

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• 15 October

  Singapore’s home sales rise 13% in September

  

  Bloomberg Sales of private apartments in Singapore jumped 13% in September to the highest in more than a year even as home-price growth moderated. Developers in the city-state sold 1,270 apartments last month versus a revised 1,123 in August, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released on Tuesday. That’s the most since July 2018, when the government shocked ...

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• 15 October

  India plans to train women to combat water challenge

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government plans to employ women across villages to test water quality to combat rising challenges, amid scarcity of the resource across India. Women in villages across 256 water-scarce districts will receive training to ensure clean water supplies, Smriti Irani, the federal minister for women & child development, said in Mumbai. The programme will be expanded ...

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• 15 October

  China firm on brink of bankruptcy rallies 51%

  

  Bloomberg An insolvency case in a remote city on the Tibetan Plateau shows how in China, most outcomes are better than getting booted out of the stock market. A local court in Qinghai — a huge and sparsely-populated province that’s home to the country’s largest lake — threw a lifeline to Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co when it accepted a ...

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• 15 October

  Indonesia reports surprise trade deficit

  Bloomberg Indonesia posted a surprise trade deficit in September as the US-China trade war and a global slowdown continued to weigh on exports in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Exports contracted for an 11th consecutive month, falling 5.7% from a year ago but not as much as the decline of 6.5% forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. That resulted in ...

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• 15 October

  Santos targets Asia LNG growth

  

  Bloomberg Santos Ltd. agreed to buy ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia business for $1.4 billion in a deal that will boost the Adelaide-based oil and gas producer’s position in the growing Asian liquefied natural gas market. The transaction may allow Santos to become the country’s largest independent energy producer and capitalise on a push by Asian consumers, including China, to switch to ...

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• 15 October

  China’s Sinopec to reduce operations as freight rates soar

  

  Bloomberg China’s biggest refiner plans to reduce operations from next month after a surge in the cost of shipping crude eroded margins. Freight rates have skyrocketed since the US announced sanctions on Chinese shipowners in late-September, triggering a flight from vessels owned by affected companies and a bidding war for alternative tankers. That’s driven up the cost of importing crude ...

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