L’Oreal targets Chinese skincare market with £540m acquisition August 16, 2013 Paris-based beauty company L’Oreal has offered to buy Chinese facial mask maker Magic Holdings International for HK$6.54bn (£540m). L’Oreal is hoping its HK$6.30 per share offer will allow it to take advantage the Chinese company’s leading market share of the fastest growing sector in China’s $15bn skincare market. The facial mask market is projected to [...]
Everbright investigating trading error related to Shanghai spike August 16, 2013 Major Chinese brokerage firm China Everbright Securities suspended its trading in domestic A shares yesterday after a trading error potentially resulted in a sudden spike on the Shanghai Composite Index. Rumours are circulating that the issue derived from an Everbright broker mistakenly switching a mock trading session into a live one. Everbright lost over eight [...]
Before the open – 16/08 August 16, 2013 The Shanghai Composite Index posted the biggest intraday jump since March 2009 and volumes 76 per cent higher than the 30-day average, despite no news of note. Chinese officials are looking into what happened, with some traders speculating it could be government intervention to support the markets or a trading error. The bourse said it [...]
Earnings up at China Mobile August 15, 2013 China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile carrier by subscribers, posted a two per cent rise in second-quarter net profit yesterday, roughly in line with market expectations, buoyed by an increase in 3G subscribers. China Mobile’s net profit for the April-June quarter came in at 35.2bn yuan (£3.7bn). China Mobile, the only Chinese carrier that does [...]
China to launch a new pharmaceutical probe August 14, 2013 CHINA is intensifying its investigation into bribery in the pharmaceutical and medical services sector with a fresh three-month probe slated to begin today, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The probe by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), one of China’s anti-trust regulators, is aimed at stamping out bribery, fraud and other anti-competitive [...]
Bottom Line: Australia slowdown not a bust August 13, 2013 SUCH is the FTSE’s reliance on mining and commodities stocks that closely watched data from the sector – be it a slowdown in the Chinese economy or a lift in factory output – can make or break a day’s trading. But as Michael Page proved yesterday, the knock-on effects go even further. The white-collar [...]
Whirlpool buys 51 per cent stake in China home appliance maker August 13, 2013 HOME appliance maker Whirlpool said yesterday it will acquire a controlling stake in Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric for $552m (£357m) to expand in China’s fast-growing market for washing machines and fridges. Hefei Sanyo was set up in 1994 as a joint venture between Japan’s Sanyo Electric, now a unit of Panasonic, and Heifei State-Owned Assets [...]
DailyFX: Analyst picks August 12, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Closed short Aussie dollar-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few weeks The Reserve Bank of Australia meeting led to steeper declines, but a quicker than anticipated reversal knocked my short Aussie-dollar position for a solid (but admittedly poorly managed) [...]
Analyst Views: What is your outlook for Rio Tinto in light of yesterday’s results? August 8, 2013 JONATHAN JACKSON | KILLIK & CO “Results were in line with expectations and highlight that good progress is being made on a number of strategic priorities. Although profits will be impacted if the iron ore price falls as new production comes onstream, we believe the current rating already discounts this to some extent. PETER [...]
London Report: China trade data surprise breaks FTSE’s losing run August 8, 2013 THE FTSE 100 benchmark equity index broke a four-day losing streak yesterday as forecast-beating trade data from China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, lifted mining stocks. China’s exports and imports both rose more than expected in July, in a tentative sign of economic recovery. The basic materials sector added 12 points to Britain’s FTSE 100, [...]