:00:00. > :00:14.Now, we go to Singapore for Asia Business Report.
:00:15. > :00:21.China lets its currency trade in a wider band, doubling the range
:00:22. > :00:23.against the US dollar. Ali Baba picks New York over Hong Kong for
:00:24. > :00:35.its share sale, and we find out why. Welcome to Asia Business Report.
:00:36. > :00:40.China is in focus this morning after Beijing announced it would allow the
:00:41. > :00:56.you whine to trade in a wider range. -- yuan. This has been welcomed by
:00:57. > :01:00.the US Treasury. Washington and Beijing have frequently been locked
:01:01. > :01:07.in disputes over the value of the yuan. There will also be
:01:08. > :01:11.geopolitical risks after the referendum in Crimea. The people in
:01:12. > :01:19.Crimea have voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining Russia. The
:01:20. > :01:23.referendum has come under fierce criticism from both the US and
:01:24. > :01:28.Europe, and Japan has just come out to say that it does not recognise
:01:29. > :01:32.the referendum either. Here is how regional markets are trading.
:01:33. > :01:33.the referendum either. Here is how regional markets They are generally
:01:34. > :01:47.down, except in Korea. Earlier, I spoke with a financial
:01:48. > :01:55.expert from Sydney. I asked about China White in the range of its
:01:56. > :02:03.currency. China are allowing the currency to become more freely
:02:04. > :02:07.traded on the market. It is slower than expected, but it is part of a
:02:08. > :02:12.well thought out process. The lasting China want to see is
:02:13. > :02:17.artificially inflated currency, and they have allowed their currency to
:02:18. > :02:26.depreciate, but they are allowing it to happen in an orderly way. You
:02:27. > :02:29.think it will start to speed up now? It will start to speed things up by
:02:30. > :02:34.Chinese standards, but not necessarily by Western standards. In
:02:35. > :02:39.developing markets, these things are well thought out. There is always
:02:40. > :02:45.caution. We are seeing traders during this is a positive future for
:02:46. > :02:48.the Chinese market, so I think the market is seeing this is a great
:02:49. > :02:54.leap than we have seen in recent years. Of course, weak economic news
:02:55. > :03:02.from Beijing weighed on the market last week. Now, in terms of Crimea,
:03:03. > :03:06.that was a huge factor for markets last week. What you think we will
:03:07. > :03:13.see this week? They have started fairly mixed. The market has almost
:03:14. > :03:17.entirely brushed this off, because it was expected. What we are seeing
:03:18. > :03:23.in the Australian market, for example, and in other Asian markets,
:03:24. > :03:25.is basically the status quo. We are not seeing fallout from the
:03:26. > :03:32.referendum outcome which was expected. There are reports of a
:03:33. > :03:36.huge flight of capital outside the US, by Russian nationals, back into
:03:37. > :03:41.Russia, in anticipation of sanctions coming through. We have seen in
:03:42. > :03:47.recent history but that has the ability to impact markets. We will
:03:48. > :03:52.be watching gold prices, oil, and pockets of investment where some
:03:53. > :04:00.Russian capital outside of the US might find a home. The world's
:04:01. > :04:04.largest e-commerce firm, Alibaba, has chosen to hold its share sale in
:04:05. > :04:09.New York over Hong Kong. This could be the biggest public offering since
:04:10. > :04:14.Facebook raised 16 billion last year. One of the main reasons
:04:15. > :04:20.Alibaba picks New York is that exchanges in the US allow founders
:04:21. > :04:24.like Mark Zuckerberg to retain country of their companies even if
:04:25. > :04:31.they don't own a majority of shares. That is not possible in Hong Kong.
:04:32. > :04:36.Sunday's statement from Alibaba makes it very clear that they are
:04:37. > :04:40.now pursuing a listing in America. It is not clear what stock exchange
:04:41. > :04:45.in New York will win the deal, but absolutely, and a lot of people
:04:46. > :04:50.think it might be even bigger than the Facebook listing of 16 billion
:04:51. > :04:59.US dollars. Something like nine out of the ten most recent IPOs in the
:05:00. > :05:02.tech sector have turned their back on Hong Kong and gone to the US
:05:03. > :05:07.instead. Is there any indication that there might be some flexibility
:05:08. > :05:16.from Hong Kong? The one shareholder, 1-vote rule? Certainly,
:05:17. > :05:21.the Hong Kong stock exchange leader has been writing on his blog saying
:05:22. > :05:26.there should be a reconsideration of the rules. We will see that actually
:05:27. > :05:29.happens. I think Hong Kong is very proud of its rules, and proud that
:05:30. > :05:35.it believes the system is very fair. Any change would be extremely hard
:05:36. > :05:47.fought. That said, there might be a couple of mega listings later on
:05:48. > :05:51.this year. One company has said reportedly that it may be raising as
:05:52. > :05:57.much as $6 billion in the first half of this year. There will still be
:05:58. > :06:02.some listings, big internet Chinese companies, with very few
:06:03. > :06:08.exceptions, they have always traditionally preferred to list in
:06:09. > :06:15.New York. SoftBank shares are up in Tokyo. The Japanese wireless carrier
:06:16. > :06:21.owns 70% of Alibaba. We should point out that the business to business
:06:22. > :06:28.marketplace unit Alibaba is already listed on the New York Stock
:06:29. > :06:35.Exchange since 2007. Honda is recalling around 100,000 of its
:06:36. > :06:45.habitat to see many vans. The automaker said they may catch fire.
:06:46. > :06:49.-- Odyssey. The company added that proper repair parts will not be
:06:50. > :06:59.available until the middle of next year.
:07:00. > :07:11.A deal that has involved the acquisition of a large French bank,
:07:12. > :07:18.has gone through from one of the largest lenders in South East Asia.
:07:19. > :07:24.With weak demand for Indian goods in traditional markets like Europe and
:07:25. > :07:30.the US, Africa is already proving to be increasingly important to the
:07:31. > :07:32.Asian giant. We spoke to some experts at a recent summit in Delhi
:07:33. > :07:57.to find out more. Summits like this are one way to
:07:58. > :08:01.engage with Africa. This one, organised by India's main industry
:08:02. > :08:04.body, attracted leaders and businessmen from more than 40
:08:05. > :08:10.African countries. Deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars were
:08:11. > :08:15.discussed, deals that look all the more likely as India's trade with
:08:16. > :08:19.Africa grows. India has done extraordinarily well in Africa. It
:08:20. > :08:26.has increased its share of trade with Africa from about 1% to 6%. It
:08:27. > :08:42.has been the number five country as far as FDI is concerned. This
:08:43. > :08:55.relationship has grown in the past decade. Experts think this is just
:08:56. > :08:59.the beginning. India is today where we expect African countries to be in
:09:00. > :09:02.about ten years. It is an emerging market, they could bring a different
:09:03. > :09:07.viewpoint to those we have seen before. They have a large role to
:09:08. > :09:13.play. We have been able to see what they have been able to do over a
:09:14. > :09:15.relatively short period of time, how they brought infrastructure online.
:09:16. > :09:20.They had the same issues that most African countries up dealing with
:09:21. > :09:26.now. Issues with power deficit, sanitation. We feel that this will
:09:27. > :09:35.translate very well to Africa. In India, middle classes are getting
:09:36. > :09:38.wealthier and spending more money. Indian companies are discovering
:09:39. > :09:49.this in Africa, and are competing with each other to sell. One example
:09:50. > :09:58.is telecommunication. One of India's largest telecom companies,
:09:59. > :10:02.airtel, paid for a contract to take over the networks there. Their
:10:03. > :10:13.largest market is in Nigeria. So far, India's, as with Africa is
:10:14. > :10:16.still dwarfed by China, but relations between India and Africa
:10:17. > :10:19.looks set to go from strength to strength. -- India's commerce with
:10:20. > :10:26.Africa. That easy Asia Business Report.
:10:27. > :10:29.Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.