Browse content similar to 17/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
out checks into the backgrounds of the crew and staff. Singapore is now | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
ready. Here is the business. China lets its currency trade in a | :00:00. | :00:19. | |
wider band, doubling against the US dollar. Ali Barber picks New York | :00:20. | :00:27. | |
over Hong Kong for its share sale. -- Ali Baba. Welcome. China is in | :00:28. | :00:37. | |
focus this morning after Beijing announced it will allow the currency | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
to trade in a wider range starting today. The country's central bank | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
says it will double the trading band against the US dollar to 2%. It | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
underscores the promise that it would allow the market to play a | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
greater role in the economy. It has been welcomed by the US Treasury. | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
Washington and Beijing have frequently been locked in dispute | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
over the value of the yuan. Here is the reaction in regional markets. | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
Most markets are down. The Nikkei down 63 points. One other factor | :01:09. | :01:15. | |
that will play into markets, geopolitical risks after the | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
referendum in Crimea. Have voted overwhelmingly in favour of leaving | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
the Ukraine to join Russia. Election officials in Crimea said turnout has | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
been high at more than 80%. With half the votes counted, more than | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
95% of ballots were in favour of joining Russia. The referendum has | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
come under fierce criticism from the US and Europe. Earlier, I spoke to | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
someone from the vast financial services in Sydney and asked about | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
the significance of China widening the training range of its currency. | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
-- trading. This is part of an ongoing process where the Chinese | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
are allowing the currency to become more freely traded. It is a process | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
that is slower than what some expected. It is part of a well | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
thought out process. The last thing China wants to see from an | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
artificially inflated currency is high inflation. They want to make | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
sure it is conducted in an orderly way. This is all part of the | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
process. Do you think it will now start to speed up? It will start to | :02:24. | :02:31. | |
speed things up why Chinese standards but not necessarily by | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
Western standards. In the developing markets, these things are well | :02:36. | :02:37. | |
thought out. There is always caution. What we are seeing is the | :02:38. | :02:45. | |
traders are seeing this as positive. The market is starting to see this | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
as perhaps a greater leap than what we have seen in recent years. | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
Interesting. China and weak economic news from Beijing weighed on the | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
market last week. Obviously things are different this week. Also in | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
terms of Crimea, now that we've had the referendum, Crimea was a huge | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
factor for markets last week. What do you think we will see this week? | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
A mixed picture so far. That's right. The market has almost | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
entirely brushed this off because it was expected. What we are seeing in | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
the Australian market, for example, and other met -- other Asian markets | :03:20. | :03:26. | |
is the status quo. No fallout from the referendum outcome, which was | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
expected. The one thing to watch is there are reports of a huge flight | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
of capital outside the US by Russian nationals, back into Russia, in | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
anticipation of sanctions. What we have seen in recent history is that | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
it can cause instability in the market. We will watch the gold price | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
closely, or ill and also pockets of investment where some Russian | :03:53. | :03:54. | |
capital outside the US might find a home. -- oil. | :03:55. | :04:02. | |
The world's large as e-commerce firm Alibaba has chosen New York over | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
Hong Kong. It aims to raise $15 billion from this exercise, making | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
it among the world's biggest public offering since Facebook raised $16 | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
billion last year. One of the main reasons Alibaba picked New York over | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
Hong Kong is that exchanges in the US allow founders like Facebook's | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
Mark Zuckerberg to remain control of their companies, even if they don't | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
own a majority in shares. That scenario is not possible in Hong | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
Kong. Our correspondent in Hong Kong has more. | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
Sunday's statement from Alibaba makes it clear that they are now | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
pursuing that listing in America. It's not clear which stock exchange | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
in New York will win this deal but absolutely a lot of people are | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
saying that it might even be bigger than the Facebook listing of 16 | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
billion US dollars. Something like nine out of the ten | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
most recent IPOs in the tech sector have gone to the US, over Hong Kong. | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
Is there any indication that there might be some flexibility from Hong | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
Kong? Is one shareholder Boral, which they hold so tightly. -- | :05:14. | :05:23. | |
shareholder rule. Certainly the Hong Kong stock exchange writer has been | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
talking about a reconsideration of the rules. We will see if that | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
happens. Hong Kong is very proud of its rules. It believes the system is | :05:34. | :05:40. | |
fair. Any change would be extremely heartfelt indeed. There could be a | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
couple of mega listings later this year. One at the WH group. | :05:46. | :05:57. | |
Smithfield is has reportedly said in some publications that it might | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
raise as much as $16 billion in the first half of this year. The upbeat | :06:01. | :06:09. | |
into that companies that have always traditionally preferred to list in | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
New York. SoftBank shares are up by nearly 7%. | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
That's following the news of Alibaba's IPO. It owns 37% of | :06:19. | :06:27. | |
Alibaba. The group's business to business marketplace unit is already | :06:28. | :06:29. | |
listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, listed in 2007. The latest | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
figures from Singapore showed the nonoil domestic exports rose 9% in | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
February, competitor same time last year. Shipments of electronics have | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
fallen by more than 3% in the same month. That follows a 70% drop in | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
the electorate of exports in January and more than 3% in December. | :06:50. | :06:55. | |
Together, with China and Taiwan, it has made it a hub for the manic -- | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
manufacturing of a phonics, with a big focus on parts for personal | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
computers. Singapore may now need to rethink its economic strategies. | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
Earlier, I spoke to someone who explained the slowdown. Sales were | :07:12. | :07:20. | |
down by about 12% in notebooks. It is really about the smartphones. | :07:21. | :07:27. | |
That is driving things. A lot of that isn't manufactured in | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
Singapore. It's all up in China. That's one area where there is an | :07:32. | :07:39. | |
issue. Things will balance over. Electronic exports are very | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
important. Do they have to start diversifying? Finding something else | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
to fill the gaps? With any economy it is important to look at as much | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
as possible. Electronics is still strong. Purchasing was strong last | :07:55. | :08:02. | |
year. The island in a big recession, in terms of electronics, but it is | :08:03. | :08:10. | |
slowing down. -- we aren't in a big. Things are heading down a more | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
normal track. We have just gone over a little hump? Yes. It's not like it | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
was five years ago. It is down. People are waiting for the coming | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
out of the new iPhones and those sorts of things. | :08:27. | :08:34. | |
Singapore's DDS bank will buy SocGen in a deal worth over $200 million. | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
It covers the acquisition of their private banking equities in Hong | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
Kong and Singapore, as well as selected parts of its trust unit. | :08:43. | :08:49. | |
DDS is the largest lender in Southeast Asia. -- DBS. | :08:50. | :08:57. | |
China will invest more than $150 billion this year to redevelop | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
shanty towns, as the government promotes organisation as an engine | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
of growth. Money will be spent on building more railways and | :09:07. | :09:08. | |
increasing the number of small and medium-sized cities. According to | :09:09. | :09:15. | |
the plans, rural residents employed in cities should see their incomes | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
go up. Investment in urban infrastructure come up public | :09:21. | :09:22. | |
facilities and housing will drive economic development. That's it for | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
this edition of Asia Business Report. Thanks for the gym. -- for | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
watching. The headlines: There have been | :09:31. | :09:40. | |
celebrations in Crimea as people vote overwhelmingly in favour of | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
leaving Ukraine and joining Russia. Of the referendum ballot papers | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
counted so far, 95% are pro-Moscow. 25 countries are now involved in the | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, as investigators | :09:54. | :09:55. | |
carry out checks into the backgrounds of the | :09:56. | :09:57. |