2 Hours Ago
Real estate stocks drag Hang Seng to be biggest loser among Asian benchmarks
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index tumbled over 2%, led by real estate stocks after the People’s Bank of China held its one-year and five-year loan prime rates at 3.45% and 4.2%, respectively.
The largest loser on the HSI was property developer China Resources Land, which plunged 9.54%.
Other stocks on the biggest losers list also included residential property services investment firm Longfor Group, which lost 5.99%, as well as hotpot chain Haidilao, which declined 6.27%.
4 Hours Ago
China LPR decision awaited, markets expect no change
Investors will be looking out for an update from China’s central bank on its one- and five-year loan prime rates at around 09:15 a.m. Singapore time.
The one- and five-year LPR currently stand at 3.45% and 4.2%, respectively, and markets expect the People’s Bank of China to make no changes to the rates.
PBOC surprised market participants and held the rate on some 995 billion yuan ($138.84 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans unchanged at 2.50% last week.
“The market expects both the 1Y and 5Y LPRs to be unchanged at 3.45% and 4.2% respectively,” Commerzbank analysts wrote in a client note, while also noting that China’s foreign direct investment recorded its biggest annual drop in 2023 since 2009.
Commerzbank said FDI in China fell 8% last year, in Chinese yuan terms, attributing the decline to several factors including the country’s economic slowdown, high global interest rates, increasing regulatory and geopolitical risks, and the West’s tough stance on China’s technology sector.
— Shreyashi Sanyal
