Weekly Market Summary

💡1. The UK is to overhaul its development investment arm in a move designed to counterbalance China’s influence in emerging countries by offering “alternatives” to taking on “strings-attached debt”. Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, will launch British International Investment (BII) on Thursday, a body that will leverage private capital to invest in countries across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. The BII is a revamped version of the government’s Commonwealth Development Corporation Group investing in purely commercial projects, such as hotels and shopping centres, and for concentrating on more advanced economies. Under plans for the BII, the UK will mobilise at least £9bn of investment a year by 2025.  

💡2. More than US$460 million of market value in tech stocks in Hong Kong has been erased in regulatory crackdowns since authorities foiled Ant Group’s stock offering this time last year. Despite holding opposite views on the fading pace of regulatory crackdowns and policy responses, funds bled all the same. JPMorgan’s US$1.5 billion Pacific Technology Fund fell 14 per cent in value in the three months to September, its worst quarter since the end of 2018.The US$1.5 billion BlackRock China Fund fell 15.6 per cent in its worst performance in six years, according to Bloomberg data, while the US$5.5 billion Fidelity China Consumer Fund lost 19.7 per cent for its biggest setback in more than a decade.

💡3. Hong Kong has priced its first yuan-denominated green bonds, raising 5 billion yuan (US$783 million) just days after selling its first euro-denominated green offering as the city seeks to position itself as Asia’s hub for sustainable finance. Green bonds are fixed-income financial products designed to fund projects that are environmentally friendly. Hong Kong plans to increase the use of wind, waste-to-energy and solar power to generate electricity in the coming years, part of the push to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, according to the special administrative region’s (SAR’s) latest climate action plan unveiled in October. 

💡4. Hong Kong’s retail property market is still reeling from the damage incurred over the past several years. According to data from CBRE, prime high street rents fell a staggering 40.7 per cent in the three years to the third quarter of this year. First, the “zero-Covid” policy doggedly pursued by Hong Kong and mainland China not only guarantees that the reopening of the mainland border. Second, China’s luxury retail market has undergone profound changes since the pandemic erupted. Hong Kong’s retail property sector is being pulled in different directions. A leasing market driven by domestic consumption, and powered by F&B operators, is helping the city cope with its zero-Covid-induced isolation.

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