Showing posts with label Asian Stocks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian Stocks. Show all posts

Monday 23 July 2012

The rise and rise of Asian financial centers. As the West bogs down, opportunities go East

July 23, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT
The rise and rise of Asian financial centers 
As the West bogs down, opportunities go East


By David Marsh, MarketWatch
SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) — A lot has been said and written about the power shift between East and West engendered by worldwide economic changes of the past 10 years, especially the 2007-08 trans-Atlantic financial crisis. But as British newspaper headline writers like to say when a transition of gigantic proportions is upon us: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Already since the end of the 1990s, we have seen two phases in Asia’s economic renaissance. First came a period of rapid reserve asset accumulation by non-Western economies, an expression of current account surpluses, high savings ratios and a refusal to let currency appreciation damp rising exports.

Europe's Week Ahead: U.K. GDP

The U.K. and U.S. will release second-quarter GDP figures while on the corporate side investor will be looking out for earnings results from banks Barclays and Lloyds and carmaker Peugeot. Dow Jones's Andrea Tryphonides and Nina Bains report. Photo: Reuters
Then, in the aftermath of the sub-prime imbroglio and then the collapse of Lehman Brothers, we saw stronger-than-ever signs of the Eastern economies’ resilience as the US and Europe remained bogged down in post-crisis doldrums.
We are about to witness a third phase: the powering ahead of Asian financial markets as a part of sweeping changes in the make-up of assets and liabilities around the world. The stage is set for Asian practices and principles gradually to come to the fore in global financial services.
There are several straws in the wind. Two of the top three stock market flotations this year — the $3 billion listing of palm-oil firm Felda Global Ventures and the $2 billion initial public offering of state-backed IHH Healthcare Bhd, Asia’s largest private hospital operator — have been carried out in Malaysia, a country that was hardly on the financial radar screen until a few years ago.
Malaysia’s cash-rich pension funds and fund management groups have allowed the country to buck the trend of scrapped IPOs that have brought setbacks this year not only in the West but also in Asian centers like Hong Kong.
Malaysia, too, has supplied the investors for a landmark property deal in London — the £400 million Battersea Power Station transaction for property group SP Setia, palm-oil group Sime Darby, and Employees Provident Fund, the country’s largest pension fund, which U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron intends to extol as a sign of a new investment partnership between Europe and Asia.
At a wider level, Asian fixed-income markets have been recipients of large inflows this year as investors around the globe pile into new asset classes free of the uncertainties overhanging the dollar and the euro. In M&A and private equity, investors and deal makers from Asia are assuming ever-more self-confident positions that make them less dependent on financial intermediaries and bankers from the West. In new product areas, watch out for a spate of offerings in Islamic finance that will mount a rising challenge to Western institutions, which are hardly in the best position to withstand competition.
Europe and the U.S. are reeling under the impact of a spate of financial industry setbacks — ranging from the sub-prime debacle and blatant disregards for investment-banking conflicts of interest through to the latest scandals over financial product mis-selling, Libor fixing and money laundering. Overshadowing everything has been the weakening of the banks, especially in Europe, as a result of the demise of the Western growth model and the buildup of debt owed by private and public-sector borrowers, part of which will plainly never be repaid.
Disparities have been exacerbated by Europe’s abject failure first to diagnose and then to repair the innate shortcomings of economic and monetary union (EMU), the single currency project that was supposed to promote growth, investment and employment but instead has turned into Europe’s melancholy union. The disappointments surrounding EMU have taken their toll on European investment banking as the hotly anticipated spate of M&A and capital-market opportunities induced by a single euro financial market has failed to materialize.
Differences between East and West have been enhanced, too, by America’s inability to put its public finances on to a sounder footing, which leaves the U.S. financial system at the mercy of adversarial political forces before and after the end-year presidential elections.
For bankers and product specialists, the message is clear. Growth, innovation and dynamism in financial services are likely to migrate beyond the West. Just as Asia in past centuries used to measure itself by reference to Europe (seen in the appellations “near East”,” far East” etc), in the future Europe and the U.S. are likely to register their own prowess by reference to Asia.
For financial practitioners who have grown up in the financial sector penumbra of the City or Manhattan (let alone Paris or Frankfurt), there can be only one conclusion. “Go East, young man! (or woman!).” Potential, responsibility and reward are on offer with ever-greater urgency in the centers of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
If you work in financial services, ignore at your peril the implications of this sea change. The world is rapidly changing and if you want to capitalize on that, move to the places where things are happening. 

David Marsh is co-chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-rise-and-rise-of-asian-financial-centers-2012-07-23?link=MW_story_investinginsight

Thursday 17 June 2010

'Asian economy to be 50% larger'

'Asian economy to be 50% larger'
TNN, Jun 17, 2010, 12.59am IST


WASHINGTON: With India and China leading the way, the recent recession has underlined the emergence of Asia as a global economic powerhouse, says an IMF official.

"Based on expected trends, within five years, Asia's economy (including Australia and New Zealand) will be about 50% larger than it is today (in purchasing-power-parity terms), account for more than a third of global output, and be comparable in size to the economies of the US and Europe," IMF director, Asia and Pacific Department, Anoop Singh said.

"By 2030, Asian GDP will exceed that of the Group of Seven major industrial economies (G-7)," Singh wrote in the issue of IMF's finance and development.

"Several economies in the region are generating growth outcomes that are helping pull the world economy out of recession. China and India are leading the way, but the phenomenon is by no means limited to these two countries. "Asia's economic importance is unmistakable and palpable," he said. “The recent crisis has underlined the emergence of Asia as a global economic powerhouse,” he added.

As such it is only natural, then, for Asia's voice to become increasingly influential in economic and financial discourse.

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Asian shares fall from seven-month high

Asian shares fall from seven-month high


Stock markets across Asia dropped from their highest level in seven months as investors took the opportunity to take profits fon the recent rally.

By Telegraph staff
Last Updated: 8:20AM BST 12 May 2009

In Tokyo, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial fell almost 4pc after soaring 26pc in the past three days. Sony was also on the backfoot, slipping 3pc, as the yen climbed against a weaker dollar.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, Fortescue Metals Group, Australia’s third-largest iron ore producer, was down 6.2pc after analysts at JP Morgan Chase slashed their recommendation on the shares.

Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros, told Bloomberg News that "of course its time for a correction, that’s the way markets work.”I don’t see the stock market as a great place to be for the next two to three years, maybe for the next decade.”

Overall, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.1pc to 97.44 in Tokyo. The pullback comes after six days of advance fulled by hopes that the global economy is recovering. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average retreated 1.4pc to 9,315.67.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/5311098/Asian-shares-fall-from-seven-month-high.html

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Asian Stocks Hit 2-Month High as Risk Returns

Asian Stocks Hit 2-Month High as Risk Returns

Topics:South Korea Australia Stock Market Singapore Hang Seng Nikkei Shanghai Stock Exchange
By: CNBC.com 05 Jan 2009

Asian stocks hit a two-month high Monday, with investors betting the global economy will start to recover later this year by shedding some of their big holdings of safe-haven government bonds.

The Australian dollar pushed to a three-month high against the U.S. dollar as investors embraced higher-yielding currencies, taking heart from calmer financial markets and expectations for big government stimulus spending packages in coming weeks to revive growth.

The dollar edged up across the board, mainly getting a boost as the euro stumbled. Traders said the single currency's surge in December was due more to factors such as investors repatriating funds before year-end and was likely overdone. Commodity prices generally firmed, with oil prices climbing above $47 a barrel on increased tensions in the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine.

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Japan's Nikkei 225 Average began 2009 on a strong note, closing 2.1 percent higher in a shortened session and hitting a two-month high on hopes this year will be better than last, the worst in the Nikkei's history. Honda Motor and other exporters climbed on a weaker yen.

Resource-linked firms such as trading houses surged as oil jumped more than 3 percent, after an Iranian military commander reportedly called on Islamic countries to cut oil exports to supporters of Israel over Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to stop Hamas rocket attacks.

Seoul shares gained 1.4 percent with banks including KB Financial rallying on expectations of a rate cut, while auto makers advanced on strengthening views their earnings may not be as bad as feared.

Australian stocks finished down 0.7 percent as banks gave up early gains, precious metal miners fell on lower gold prices and investors sold offshore earners likely to be hurt by a stronger Australian dollar.

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Hong Kong shares rose 3.5 percent, with China Mobile rising for a second day on hopes that Chinese telecom operators will soon be issued licences to offer third generation (3G) services. China's Lenovo Group climbed after the Chinese magazine Caijing said the world's No.4 personal computer maker was set to announce a major restructuring plan on Jan. 8 including changes of its top management. Aluminum Corp of China jumped 9.5 percent, tracking similar gains in its Shanghai listed scrip on hopes that it would benefit from the government's infrastructure building plans.

Singapore's Straits Times Index rose 5.2 percent. Shares of plantation firms such as Golden Agri and Wilmar International rose on higher palm oil prices. Benchmark palm oil prices in Malaysia rose 1.5 percent after crude oil climbed on worries over supplies after an Iranian military commander reportedly called for an oil boycott.

China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.3 percent, with industrial metal producers leading the gains on hopes they would benefit from the government's infrastructure building plans. Coal producers also outperformed, partly because of a surge in global oil prices due to tensions in the Middle East. Shenhua Energy gained.

© 2009 CNBC.com