September, 2018

• 19 September

  London house prices post biggest drop since a decade

  Bloomberg London house prices posted their biggest drop in almost a decade in July. Home prices fell 0.7 percent, the biggest decline since September 2009, the Office for National Statistics said. The average property in the capital cost $640,000. Trends in the London property market tend to start in boroughs in the centre and west of the city, before moving ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  Cash-strapped Americans leveraging their homes to pay bills

  

  Bloomberg As US household debt rises and wages stagnate, millions of Americans are tapping into home equity to keep up with day-to-day expenses. Twenty-four million homeowners believe borrowing against home equity is an acceptable way to cover regular bills, according to a Bankrate.com report. Cash-strapped millennials, low earners and the less educated were most likely to think home equity offered ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  Stocks mixed as technology weighs; Treasuries drop

  

  Bloomberg U.S. stocks fluctuated, while Treasuries fell as investors turned attention to the latest Nafta talks. The dollar edged lower. The S&P 500 Index was mixed as technology firms weighed on benchmarks, led by semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., while banks paced gains as the 10-year Treasury yield advanced above 3.07 percent. The dollar fell against most peers and ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  Japan’s Topix caps biggest four-day gain since 2016

  

  Bloomberg Japan’s Topix index completed its biggest advance over a four-day period since November 2016 while the yen remained near a two-month low against the dollar as investors brushed off concerns of a trade war between the US and China. Electronics and machinery shares were the biggest boosts to the benchmark as China’s Ministry of Finance said Beijing is still ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  Bank profits won’t resume pre-crisis levels, says ECB

  

  Bloomberg Euro-area banks probably won’t restore their profits to the peaks seen before the 2008 financial crisis, according to the European Central Bank. The squeeze on profits has resulted from factors including tougher capital requirements put in place since the crisis and banks’ shying away from riskier businesses, the ECB said. Still, firms need to earn an “appropriate return” on ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  Thailand holds key rate as prospect for future hike rising

  

  Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged near a record low as expected, with the prospect of a future tightening increasing as more monetary policy committee members dissented. Five of the seven committee members at the meeting voted to hold the one-day bond repurchase rate at 1.5 percent, where it’s been since 2015, according to the Bank ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  RBI has the means to boost rupee from its record low

  

  Bloomberg India’s central bank has enough reserves to defend the rupee, according to the State Bank of India and Nomura Holdings Inc., as the currency shrugged off the government’s supportive measures to plunge to a fresh record. The Reserve Bank of India can sell an additional $25 billion, at least, in the foreign-exchange market, SBI estimates, based on intervention patterns ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  ANZ hires Morgan Stanley to restart Bank Panin stake sale

  

  Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. recently hired Morgan Stanley to help sell its stake in Indonesian lender PT Bank Pan Indonesia, according to people with knowledge of the matter. ANZ, which has long been seeking to divest its Bank Panin holding, plans to start gauging interest again from potential private equity and strategic buyers, the people said, ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  Merger plan erases $2.8bn from ‘Indian banks’

  Bloomberg India’s plan to merge state-controlled lenders as a way to resolve its bad-debt issue didn’t thrill investors. The proposed union of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda fanned speculation of further consolidation in the sector. While some state-run lenders rose on Tuesday, most fell on concerns about eroding capital buffers and growing bad debt for buyers. ...

  Read More »
• 19 September

  RBC prepares to blaze trail with new bail-in eligible bonds

  

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada is getting ready to sell the country’s first bail-in eligible senior securities. The bank held a call with fixed-income investors to discuss the legal framework for the securities, according to people who had access to the call. Canadian lenders will be able to start issuing the new securities after September 23, when the bail-in framework ...

  Read More »