Weekly Market Summary

💡1. The Omicron corona virus variant threatens to intensify imbalances that are slowing growth and raising costs, the OECD said on Wednesday. The new variant, which was identified last week, could delay the world economy’s return to normality. Across the G20, the OECD raised its inflation forecast for 2022 from 3.9 per cent in its September predictions to 4.4 per cent now. The largest increases were in the US and UK, where inflation forecasts for next year rose in both countries from 3.1 per cent to 4.4 per cent.  

💡2. Hong Kong needs to embrace new developments in the global financial markets with an open attitude and take risks to ensure its position as a leading global financial centre, according to a report from a pro-Beijing think tank. Internationalisation of the yuan and sustainable investments are among the many opportunities the city can target, according to the report. The report urged the city to expand its yuan-denominated bond market as well as encouraging Hong Kong stocks to be denominated, traded and financed in yuan. The report also called on the city to establish a local carbon trading market and build a unified carbon trading centre connecting the mainland and overseas markets by cooperating with cities in the Greater Bay Area and utilising the existing carbon emission trading system and platform in China.

💡3. The debt crisis affecting Chinese developers, which has reduced the bidding frenzy at land auctions in the mainland, has given a Hong Kong property firm an opportunity to acquire a prime parcel. On Tuesday, Hong Kong conglomerate HKR International won a prime residential site in Shanghai with a bid of 830.4 million yuan (US$130.4 million), its first acquisition in China’s commercial capital in nearly two decades. While the land auctions of cities across mainland China have been affected by the crisis in the country’s real estate industry, demand in Shanghai has been resilient. This has allowed the Shanghai government to avoid cutting prices or relaxing rules for the land auctions.

💡4. Singapore’s UOB Asset Management has listed its first exchange traded fund in over a decade with the launch of a green-themed real estate investment trust product. The UOB Apac Green Reit ETF claims to be the first in the world to provide investors with access to sustainable property investments in the Asia-Pacific region. It focuses on Reits that have high-dividend yields and strong ESG performance in areas such as energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and green building certifications. 

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One of the must-ask interview questions for banking and finance is: “Have you read any news recently?”, with the follow-up questions: “How would you link this news to the market and what investment suggestions would you give to your clients based on this news?” .

Showing your market sense and ability to provide feasible investment ideas would help to differentiate you from other candidates. Therefore, apart from the weekly news update / investment insights, we have also generated this Weekly Market Summary for you to have a quick understanding of the market development and tips to answer some hot discussion topics. Take a look of the summary and WhatsApp us in the group if you have questions.