(Bloomberg) -- In this era of pandemic uncertainty, Chinese and Hong Kong-listed firms have come to one consensus on how to best survive it: sit on their wallets and preserve cash.They are retaining profits instead of distributing them to shareholders, with the most Hong Kong dividend payers in at least 35 years opting not to do so in the first quarter. Meanwhile, though valuations recently reached a historical low in the city, firms haven’t picked up their stock-repurchase pace. Instead, sales of additional stock are near their highest since 2018.The data help illustrate how the pandemic has distressed the corporate side of China’s economy, which contracted to start 2020, the first quarterly decline in decades. Beijing has resorted to a long list of measures to counter the fallout from the coronavirus, but so far has shown little appetite for stimulus on the scale unveiled in the U.S. or Japan even as...
(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks saw modest gains on low volume as investors mulled further signs of positive developments in the global fight against the coronavirus. The yen ticked higher after the Bank of Japan maintained rates but tweaked some policy measures.Shares in Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan rose after U.S. stocks ended firmer on Friday. U.S. futures fluctuated and Chinese stocks were little changed. The Australian dollar outperformed, while other risk currencies ticked higher. Treasury yields gained. Coronavirus deaths slowed the most in more than a month in Spain, Italy and France while fatalities reported in the U.K. and New York were the lowest since the end of March. Oil retreated.The Federal Reserve joins the BOJ and the European Central Bank announcing policy decisions this week as the battle against the pandemic continues with some countries proceeding on steps to relax lockdown measures. Several major economies will release GDP numbers,...
Apr.26 -- Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of IHH Healthcare Bhd., which operates hospitals and other facilities in Southeast Asia and beyond, discusses how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting demand for its services and the industry. He speaks with David Ingles and Tom Mackenzie on "Bloomberg Markets: China Open."...
(Bloomberg) -- Soured investments, a forecast record loss and a rating cut are not turning SoftBank Group Corp. analysts and investors into bears on the stock.That’s because they believe a massive $23 billion share buyback plan will buoy SoftBank’s shares for months to come, more than offsetting the hit from the Vision Fund’s write-downs.Masayoshi Son’s tech giant last month boosted the size of planned share repurchases to 2.5 trillion yen, to be funded with proceeds from asset sales. The stock is up more than 40% since then, continuing to rise even after it said earlier this month that it will post an operating loss of 1.35 trillion yen for the fiscal year ended in March on hits from the Vision Fund’s soured wagers on startups such as WeWork and OneWeb. The shares rose 3.8% Monday, as of midday.“The economics of the buyback basically trump everything else,” said Sanford C. Bernstein &...
(Bloomberg) -- A narrow waterway off Singapore has become even more congested as oil-laden tankers wait out a slump in global fuel consumption that’s crimped demand and boosted the use of ships to store cargoes.About 60 clean fuel tankers are currently anchored along the busy strait, up from the usual 30-40 ships, according to Rahul Kapoor, head of commodity analytics and research at IHS Markit. Some vessels are being used to hoard fuel at sea as onshore tanks fill up. Others are probably parked, waiting to be redirected to any willing buyer across Asia and the world as the coronavirus pummels economies worldwide.Ships filled with gasoline to jet fuel are moving from major refinery hubs such as South Korea and China due to a crash in domestic demand and swelling stockpiles. These tankers are finding their way to the Singapore Strait, where the glut is being compounded by offloading delays at...
(Bloomberg) -- Bank of China Ltd.’s estimate for the carnage to retail investors from the collapse in a product linked to U.S. crude oil futures surged 11-fold to more than 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) as it consolidated reports from its nationwide network, according to people familiar with the matter.The estimate of losses to customers across China increased from about 600 million yuan in the middle of last week as more information was gathered from its more than 10,000 outlets, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. The number isn’t final and subject to further change as more branch data are examined, one of the people said.The losses stem from the bank settling May West Texas Intermediate contracts that underpinned its “Crude Oil Treasure” product on April 20 at minus $37.63 a barrel, leaving Bank of China customers caught in the middle of oil’s unprecedented collapse...
