India on Saturday announced a series of changes to the tax structure levied on crucial commodities in a bid to insulate consumers from rising prices amid high inflation. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a cut in excise duty on petrol by 8 rupees per litre, and 6 rupees per litre on diesel. The new tax […]
Hong Kong equities closed higher on Friday, with market sentiment boosted by China’s decision to lower a key benchmark rate. The Hang Seng Index rose 2.96 percent, or 596.56 points, to 20,717.24. Both the mainland’s indexes also closed higher. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.60 percent, or 49.60 points, to 3,146.57, while the Shenzhen Composite […]
The Dow and S&P 500 finished a rollercoaster session essentially flat, concluding a bruising week of losses on an uncertain note. Worries about a recession as the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates and inflation tests consumer resilience weighed on the market all week, pushing the S&P 500 into a bear market earlier in Friday’s session. […]
Hong Kong stocks opened higher on Friday despite Wall Street suffering a battering over recession fears. The Hang Seng rose 1.74 percent to 20,471. The Shanghai Composite Index increased 0.33 percent to 3,107, while the mainland’s second exchange, the Shenzhen Composite Index, rose 0.52 percent to 1,963. (AFP)
Wall Street stocks finished with more losses on Thursday as efforts to rebound from the prior session’s rout floundered amid worries over slowing growth. A day after major indices fell more than three percent, markets were choppier, occasionally rising into positive territory a few times. But investors remained anxious following earnings reports released earlier in […]
Rising prices and higher mortgage rates slowed US existing home sales for the third consecutive month in April, according to an industry survey released Thursday. Sales fell 2.4 percent compared to March to an annual rate of 5.61 million, seasonally adjusted, which was 5.9 percent lower than April 2021, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) […]
Hong Kong stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday, after a day of wavering on the index following a rally on Wall Street. The Hang Seng rose 0.20 percent, or 41.76 points, to 20,644.28. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.25 percent, or 7.72 points, to 3,085.98, while the mainland’s second exchange, the Shenzhen Composite Index, rose […]
Hong Kong equities opened sharply lower on Thursday, after Wall Street took a battering the day before. The Hang Seng Index dipped 2.71 percent to 20,085. The Shanghai Composite Index opened down 0.96 percent to 3,056, and the mainland’s second exchange, the Shenzhen Composite Index, saw a dip of 0.91 percent, to 1,924. (AFP)
Wall Street stocks suffered through another brutal session on Wednesday after disappointing results from retail giant Target exacerbated worries about inflation and profit margins in a slowing economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dove more than 3.6 percent to finish at 31,490, as all 30 members of the Dow closed in the red. The broad-based […]
American fast-food giant McDonald’s will exit the Russian market and sell its business in the increasingly isolated country, the company said on Monday. Many Western businesses have pulled out of Russia since its assault on Ukraine in February. And earlier on Monday, French automaker Renault announced it had handed over its Russian assets to the […]
Hong Kong stocks finished the first trading day of the week with modest gains, but could not break through the 20,000-point level. The Hang Seng Index opened higher on Monday but failed to make further headway, losing ground by noon. The index closed the day 51 points or 0.26 percent higher at 19,950. Turnover was […]
Hong Kong stocks opened higher on Tuesday despite Wall Street stocks finishing mostly down on weak Chinese economic data. The Hang Seng Index rose 1.29 percent, or 256.60 points, to 20,206.81. The Shanghai Composite Index opened down 0.09 percent, or 2.69 points, at 3,071.06, while the mainland’s second exchange, the Shenzhen Composite Index, sank 0.41 […]
Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower on Monday following weak Chinese economic data that added to recession worries amid inflation and rising interest rates. China’s retail sales and factory output slumped in April to their lowest levels in around two years, official data showed, reflecting the toll from that country’s restrictions due to Covid-19. FHN […]
Retail sales and industrial production on the mainland slumped to their lowest growth in two years amid Covid-19. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales shrank 11.1 percent on-year in April to 2.95 trillion yuan. That’s the largest drop since March 2020. For the first four months of the year taken […]
Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that his US$44-billion cash deal for Twitter was “temporarily on hold” while he waits for the social media company to provide data on the proportion of its fake accounts. Twitter shares initially fell more than 20 percent in premarket trading, but after Musk, the chief executive of electric car market […]
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) said the city should reopen its borders as soon as possible to tackle its brain drain. The chamber warned earlier that the SAR is facing an exodus of skilled professionals – mainly engineers, accountants and IT workers – on a scale not seen since the early 1990s, […]
The government has cut its GDP growth forecast for this year to one to two percent, as it warned that the local economy will continue to be bogged down by the external environment. The latest projection, released on Friday, was down from the two to 3.5 percent expansion that Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced in […]
Hong Kong’s de-facto central bank bought $3.164 billion from the market in New York trading hours to stop the local currency weakening and breaking its peg to the US dollar. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to a tight band of between 7.75 and 7.85 versus the US dollar. The HKMA intervened twice on Thursday […]
Wall Street surged on Friday to end higher, closing the book on a week of wild market gyrations as relief at signs of peaking inflation vied with fears that policy tightening by the Federal Reserve could tilt the economy into recession. Gains were led by a rebound in megacap tech and tech-adjacent stocks, which sold […]
Hong Kong stocks opened lower on Thursday after drops on Wall Street on renewed fears of surging inflation. The Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.35 percent to 19,567. The mainland’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.45 percent to 3,045, while the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 0.64 percent to 1,906. (AFP)