• Jan 22, 2025

India’s Stock Market Needs Domestic Investors Now More Than Ever

(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for theIndia Edition newsletter by Menaka Doshi – an insider's guide to the emerging economic powerhouse, and the billionaires and businesses behind its rise, delivered weekly.The Indian equity market’s reliance on domestic investors has never been greater as unabated foreign fund selling and rising global volatility dent the appeal of local shares.Global investors have pulled out $6 billion from Indian stocks this month, pushing the NSE Nifty 500 Index toward its worst st

  • Jan 22, 2025

China Guides Mutual Funds, Insurers to Invest More in Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- China is guiding local mutual funds and insurers to boost their stock purchases in the government’s latest initiative to shore up its ailing equity market as it confronts the threat of higher tariffs.Mutual funds should raise their holdings of onshore equities by at least 10% annually for the next three years, while large state-owned insurers will need to invest 30% of their new policy premiums from 2025, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at a p

  • Jan 22, 2025

China prods insurers to invest billions in latest move to support markets

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) -China announced plans on Thursday to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state-owned insurers into shares as part of the government's latest efforts to support a struggling stock market. The plan by the country's six financial regulators including the securities regulator was first announced on Wednesday just as Donald Trump begins a second stint as U.S. President. Coming soon after Trump's threat to slap a 10% punitive duty on Chinese imports, the coordinated moves underlined Beijing's intent to prop up markets in what could be a fractious geopolitical setting.

  • Jan 22, 2025

Asia Oil Refiners Cut Run Rates, Mull Closures as Costs Soar

(Bloomberg) -- Asian oil refiners — from Chinese teapots to processors in Singapore and South Korea — are either cutting run rates or considering it as the impact of US sanctions on Russia ripple through the market.Independent Chinese refiners in Shandong province are the hardest-hit after Washington’s strictest package of measures targeting Moscow crippled flows of their favored ESPO grade from the Pacific port of Kozmino. In other parts of Asia, so-called merchant processors, which are more de

  • Jan 22, 2025

China's shot in the arm for markets

After drowning for days in headlines about Donald Trump's return to the White House, investors were delivered a bit of a diversion on Thursday with the announcement of new Chinese measures to boost its ailing stock market. Beijing plans to channel hundreds of billions of yuan per year from state-owned insurers' funds into the stock market, including at least 100 billion yuan ($13.75 billion) in the first half of this year, according to China Securities Regulatory Commission head Wu Qing. Chinese authorities are urgently trying to shore up their sagging stock markets, where the main benchmarks have fallen 3% so far this month despite a rise in major share markets elsewhere.