July, 2017

• 4 July

  Hong Kong needs to crack the enigma code

  

  Thrill-seekers in Hong Kong who want to gamble in casinos usually have to take a bumpy, hour-long ferry ride to Macau. Those who crave excitement without leaving the city might do just as well punting on Hong Kong’s small-cap stocks. Structural weaknesses and a reluctance by regulators to delist miscreant companies has turned Hong Kong’s $4.6 trillion stock market into ...

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• 4 July

  Haven assets advance as missile test rattles traders

  

  Bloomberg A risk-off mood seeped into markets on Tuesday, with haven assets including gold and the Japanese yen climbing and stocks slipping in the wake of an apparent milestone in North Korea’s weapons program. Early market optimism in Asia — sparked by bullish American economic data yesterday — ebbed as North Korea said it successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, ...

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• 4 July

  Hong Kong stock market tumbles most in eight months

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong stocks sank the most since November as profit taking in some of the city’s top performing shares sparked a wider selloff. The Hang Seng Index dropped as much as 2.1 percent before paring declines to 1.5 percent at the close. Tencent Holdings Ltd., Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. were the biggest losers on ...

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• 4 July

  Banks dump $15bn bonds in India tug-of-war with foreigners

  

  Bloomberg India’s $750 billion sovereign-debt market is caught in a tug of war between foreign investors and state-run banks, the biggest holders of the securities. As lenders sold Rs95,200 crore ($14.7 billion) of sovereign bonds last quarter, overseas funds added more than Rs42,200 crore to their holdings of the debt. The dichotomy is stemming from the potential for future gains ...

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• 4 July

  ‘Exchanger programme’ of Emirates NBD sees 245 percent growth

  

  Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the region and a pioneer in private sector CSR volunteering in the UAE, has announced that its award-winning Exchanger programme has completed thirteen thousand seven hours of volunteering so far this year, thus coming close to completing its fifteen-thousand-hour target for 2017. The Exchanger programme which has grown 245% since ...

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• 4 July

  BOE facilities staff plans to go on strike in dispute over pay

  

  Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) facilities staff voted to go on strike for four days in a dispute over pay in the first action of its kind at the central bank in 50 years, according to a labor union. Ninety five percent of Unite’s members in the BOE’s maintenance, security and the governors’ private offices — known as the parlours ...

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• 4 July

  Santander witnesses first-half profit rising

  

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA said its takeover of failing Banco Popular Espanol SA will have a minimal impact on first half earnings, with the bank set to post a profit of 3.6 billion euros ($4.1 billion). Spain’s largest lender also set the price of its 7.07 billion-euro capital increase, saying it will sell about 1.5 billion shares at 4.85 euros ...

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• 4 July

  UK banks told to justify consumer credit as risks mount

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England told UK banks to prove that their policies on credit cards, personal loans and other types of consumer lending won’t leave them weaker in a downturn. The BOE’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said on Tuesday that firms need to show that they’re not underestimating the risks of consumer credit given the current “benign economic environment.” ...

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• 4 July

  Turkey exempted from laptop ban as Mideast hubs await relief

  

  Bloomberg Turkish Airlines said it expects measures barring large electronic devices from the cabins of aircraft leaving Istanbul for the US to be lifted on Wednesday, while long-haul competitor Emirates is counting on the restrictions being removed from its Dubai hub in the near future. Shares of Turkish Air rose 2.4 percent following the comments from Chief Executive Bilal Eksi ...

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• 4 July

  Air France whips short-sellers after bookings recovery

  

  Bloomberg Short-sellers who circled Air France-KLM Group earlier this year found themselves in a fight-or-flight moment, and they’ve fled. Europe’s largest airline has more than doubled in share price since the start of 2017, indicating the carrier has won the battle. Short interest has tapered to just 1.1 percent of shares outstanding on June 30 from this year’s peak of ...

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