Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label xian wan. biodun iginla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xian wan. biodun iginla. Show all posts

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Asia's investors cheer the Fed's move to raise rates


  • 15 minutes ago


by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News Analysts, Beijing
ASX upImage copyright GREG WOOD
Asian markets have risen after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since June 2006.
The Fed increased the range for its benchmark interest rate to between 0.25% and 0.5%, from the previous range of 0%-0.25%.
All major Asian stock markets were higher as the Fed said the US economy was "performing well".
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 share index closed 303.65 points higher, or 1.6%, at 19,353.56.
The dollar strengthened against the yen to 122.57 from 122.26 a day earlier, although it then fell back to 122.28 yen. A weaker yen is good for Japan's big exporters.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index finished the day up 1.5% at 5,102.01, while in South Korea, the Kospi index closed 0.4% higher at 1,977.96.
The Fed's decision to raise rates had been widely expected and analysts said it indicated a degree of optimism for the world's biggest economy.
"The move signals confidence in the ongoing recovery in the US economy after the great financial crisis," said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital in Sydney.
"Given ongoing deflationary risks and slow global growth, future Fed hikes are likely to be cautious and gradual.
"With the Fed decision out of the way, global shares are likely to resume their rising trend but with US shares as a relative underperformer."
Federal Reserve board chairwoman Janet YellenImage copyright Getty Images
Image caption Fed chair Janet Yellen said the US economy was performing well
The Australian dollar initially fell against the US dollar, but recovered later to buy 72.12 US cents. Australia is hoping to see its currency weaken against the dollar in the coming months.
Mr Oliver said rising US interest rates would help maintain downwards pressure on the value of the Australian dollar through 2016.

Christmas cheer

Analysts said the fact that the Fed was able to increase rates meant the US economy was finally in a position to withstand the move.
"The question for many investors now is whether this momentum in equity markets is likely to develop into a full blown 'Santa Rally' through to the end of the year," said IG Markets' Angus Nicholls.
"With little further market-moving releases expected over the coming weeks and a still dovish trajectory for future Fed policy there does seem to be a good chance of this happening," he added.
"It is worth noting that historically 16 December has been the seasonal beginning of a 'Santa Rally', so its timing with the Fed meeting does seem particularly auspicious to bring some Christmas cheer to those with equity portfolio holdings."

In China

China marketsImage copyright Getty Images
Image caption In China, when stocks are positive, they are shown in red - unlike most markets which show them as green
China's markets were also in positive territory on Thursday, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index up 0.53% at 21,820.16 afternoon trade. The Shanghai Composite index closed up 1.8% at 3,580.00.
Beijing also let the yuan slide for the 10th session in a row, to a level not seen since mid 2011.
Earlier on Thursday, Hong Kong's central bank raised the base rate it charges through its overnight discount window by 25 basis points to 0.75 points.
"This is a move that is likely to affect property prices - it will become more expensive for home owners to borrow - and comes after the US Fed's move overnight," the BBC's Asia business correspondent Karishma Vaswani explained.
Other central bank decisions on Thursday will come from the Philippines and Indonesia - though analysts are not expecting them to move rates.
"They're caught in a dilemma of facing slower growth - so they need to cut rates - but can't do that too aggressively because their currencies will weaken," Ms Vaswani said.

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Sunday, December 13, 2015

Fosun founder Guo Guangchang appears in public


  • 24 minutes ago

by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Beijing
Guo GuangchangImage copyright Getty Images
Guo Guangchang, the high-profile Chinese tycoon detained by police last week, appeared at his company's annual meeting in Shanghai on Monday.
It was the Fosun International chairman's first public event since he was reported missing.
The company later said he was assisting authorities with an investigation.
Mr Guo received a standing ovation at Monday's meeting at a Shanghai hotel, a person in the audience told Reuters.
Fosun president Wang Qunbin said the investigation mostly concerned Mr Guo's personal affairs rather than those of the company. Mr Wang said he could not give more details as the investigation was "sensitive".
Mr Guo, 48, has been described as "China's Warren Buffett". Fosun Group has interests spanning media, insurance, real estate and retail.
It recently took control of French holiday group Club Med in a deal worth some $1bn.

Shares slide

Fosun International, the parent company of Shanghai-based Fosun Group, was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2007.
Its shares were suspended on Friday and fell more than 10% when trading resumed on Monday.
Shares in Fosun Pharmaceutical, which is also listed in Hong Kong, dropped a similar amount.
Mr Guo's sudden absence, and the lack of detailed information released by the company, underlines the opaqueness of China's legal system, analysts say.
A string of senior executives at Chinese companies have temporarily gone missing this year amid a crackdown by Beijing on its financial sector.
Citic Securities, the country's biggest brokerage, said earlier this month it was unable to contact two of its top executives following reports they had been asked by authorities to assist in an investigation.

Fosun profile

FosunImage copyright Getty Images
  • Mr Guo launched Fosun with a group of fellow students in 1992.
  • Headquartered in Shanghai, Fosun's initial success came from pharmaceutical and real estate investments.
  • The firm's business interests and investments now include insurance, industrial operations, real estate and asset management, among others.
  • After nearly two years of takeover efforts, Fosun finally clinched control of the French holiday group Club Mediterranee in February.
  • Today, the conglomerate has a wide range of international investments including Greek fashion brand Folli Follie and the Chase Manhattan building in New York.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2015

China pollution: First ever red alert in effect in Beijing


  • 2 hours ago


by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Beijing
Cyclists riding through Beijing smogImage copyright Reuters
Image caption Although it is the first time a red alert has been issued, pollution has previously reached far worse levels in the city
Schools in Beijing are closed and outdoor construction halted as the Chinese capital's first ever pollution "red alert" came into effect.
The alert, the highest possible warning level, was issued late Monday and will last until midday on Thursday.
Limits have been placed on car use and some factories have been ordered to stop operations.
It comes as China, the world's worst polluter, takes part in talks on carbon emissions in Paris.
It is the first time China has declared a red alert under the four-tier alert system, which was adopted a little over two years ago, although pollution levels were far from the city's worst.
Average daily Air Quality Index categories for Beijing 2008 to 2015
At 07:00 local time on Tuesday (23:00 GMT on Monday), when the alert came into effect, the US Embassy's air pollution monitor in Beijing reported that the intensity of the tiny particles known as PM 2.5 was at 291 micrograms per cubic metre.
By 11:00 it had dropped very slightly to 250 - still a level it described as "very unhealthy". Levels of the poisonous particles in the suburbs were reported at several times that number.
The World Health Organization recommends 25 micrograms per cubic metre as the maximum safe level.

John Sudworth, BBC News, Beijing: "Why red now?"

As I cycled into the office this morning, smog mask clamped firmly in place, the traffic was certainly lighter. Beijing's first red alert means half of all cars must stay off the roads; odd numbered license plates today, even numbered ones tomorrow.
But although the air is indeed an unpleasant, filthy grey, the pollution index is actually a good deal lower than it was this time last week, when the quantity of dangerous particulate matter (PM 2.5) surged to around 40 times the World Health Organisation's maximum guideline. Today, it is a mere 10 times that limit.
So why red now? Well, the lack of any previous red alerts has been met with increasingly loud howls of derision. What would it take, people wondered last week - as their children felt their way to the still open schools through the poisonous gloom - for the government to act?
Perhaps it is the growing public pressure that has finally made the difference this time round.
Coal-powered industries and heating systems, as well as vehicle emissions and dust from construction sites, all contribute to the smog which has been exacerbated by humidity and a lack of wind.
The order will last until 12:00 on Thursday, when a cold front is expected to arrive and clear the smog.
As well as limits on construction and schools - which were advised to close if they did not have good air filtration systems - cars are only permitted to drive on alternate days, with the day depending on whether a car's number plate ends in an odd or even number. Officials promised additional public transport to cope with demand.
In pictures: Smog's effect on skyline
The smog film taking China by storm
'Air dark from pollution'
Near East 4th Ring Road, facing west towards Beijing, 1 DecImage copyright Sam
Image caption Near the East 4th Ring Road, facing west towards Beijing on 1 December...
Near East 4th Ring Road, facing west towards Beijing, 2 DecImage copyright Sam
Image caption ... and the same location a day later
Analysis: Matt McGrath, BBC environment correspondent, Paris
China's air quality is a key factor in its push for a new global deal on climate change.
Its negotiators here point to their continued investment in renewable sources of energy, in an effort to cut down on coal consumption, particularly in urban areas. Around 58% of the increase in the country's primary energy consumption in 2013-14 came from non-fossil fuel sources.
These efforts to go green may not be having an immediate effect on the air in Beijing but they have had an impact on global output of carbon dioxide. This year's figures, just published, show carbon levels have stalled or declined slightly even while the world economy has expanded.
A strong agreement here in Paris won't immediately solve China's air woes, but if it ultimately pushes down the price of renewables even further, it could play a part in solving the issue long term.
"You have to do whatever you can to protect yourself,'' Beijing resident Li Huiwen told AP news agency. "Even when wearing the mask, I feel uncomfortable and don't have any energy.''
While the smog's effects have been worsened by weather conditions and the city's geography - bordered to the south and east by industrial areas that generate pollution and to the north and west by mountains that trap it - it has prompted increasing concern that China has prioritised economic growth at too high an environmental cost.
"It is a sharp warning to us that we may have too much development at the price of environment and it is time for us to seriously deal with air pollution,'' said Beijing worker Fan Jinglong.
The scale of the health impact is vast. There have been 1.4 million premature deaths in China because of air pollution, according to a study led by Jos Lelieveld of Germany's Max Planck Institute and published this year in Nature magazine.

What are PM 2.5 particles?

Infographic
  • Particulate matter, or PM, 2.5 is a type of pollution involving fine particles less than 2.5 microns (0.0025mm) in diameter
  • A second type, PM 10, is of coarser particles with a diameter of up to 10 microns
  • Some occur naturally - e.g. from dust storms and forest fires, others from human industrial processes
  • They often consist of fragments that are small enough to reach the lungs or, in the smallest cases, to cross into the bloodstream as well
Activists said the level hit 1,400 micrograms per cubic metre in the north-east city of Shenyang last month, saying it was the worst seen in China.
In comparison, London's PM 2.5 average on 6 December was 8 micrograms per cubic metre, the Environmental Research Group at King's College said. It said more than 70 was reached during spring 2014 and 2015, and the highest was on bonfire night, 5 November 2006, at 112.
Last week, activists from Greenpeace had urged the Chinese government to declare a red alert. Another Chinese city, Nanjing, issued a red alert in December 2013.
Media captionArtist Kong Ning wants to highlight her concerns over pollution in China
On 30 November, Beijing issued an orange alert - the second-highest of the four-tier system adopted in 2013.
Pollution in the capital had in fact improved in the first 10 months of the year compared with the same period last year, although pollution levels were still frequently high.
Correspondents say Chinese officials had been unwilling to commit to hard targets on reducing carbon emissions, but have now realised the country has to cut its dependence on fossil fuels. President Xi Jinping promised to take action over China's emissions at the global climate change talks in Paris.
China still depends on coal for more than 60% of its power, despite major investment in renewable energy sources.
Are you in Beijing? Have you been affected by the smog? Let us know about your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

US HESITANT IN CONDEMNING NORTH KOREAN LAUNCH

Dec 12, 9:10 PM EST
by xian wan and biodun iginla, bbc news

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WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is drawing no "red line" for North Korea after a successful long-range rocket test, tempering the public condemnation to avoid raising tensions or possibly rewarding the reclusive communist nation with too much time in the global spotlight.
The U.S. has told the world that it won't tolerate Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons or Syria's use of chemical stockpiles on rebels. North Korea, in some ways, is a trickier case.
The U.S. wants to forcefully condemn what it believes is a "highly provocative act," and that was the first public reaction from the White House late Tuesday. But it also is mindful of the turmoil on the Korean peninsula and treading carefully, offering no threat of military action or unspecified "consequences" associated with other hot spots.
Just two years ago, the North allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship and shelled a South Korean island. Some 50 South Koreans died in the attacks that brought the peninsula to the brink of war.
North Korea already has the deterrent of a nuclear weapons arsenal. The U.S. is bound to protect next-door South Korea from any attack, but has no desire now for a military conflict.
Raising the rhetoric can even serve as a reward for seeking attention to a government that starves its own citizens while seeking to leverage any military advance it makes into much-needed aid.
"No doubt Pyongyang is pleased. It again has unsettled its leading adversaries. And it is in the news around the world," said Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "The allies should have responded with a collective yawn. After all, the plan is nothing new. The DPRK has been testing rockets and missiles for years."
The United States remains technically at war with the notoriously unpredictable North Koreans, whose opaque leadership has confounded successive American administrations. With no peace agreement, only the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War keeps the U.S. and the North from hostilities. Some 28,500 U.S. troops remain in South Korea to deter potential aggression.
Wednesday's surprising, successful launch raises the stakes, taking North Korea one step closer to being capable of lobbing nuclear bombs over the Pacific. As the North refines its technology, its next step may be conducting another nuclear test, experts warn.
The three-stage rocket is similar in design to a model capable of carrying a nuclear-tipped warhead as far as California. The rocket launched a satellite into space. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would study the launch.
"I think we still have to assess just exactly what happened here," Panetta told CNN in an interview Wednesday. He said part of the assessment would examine the final stage that launched the satellite "to determine, really, whether or not that did work effectively or whether it tumbled into space. I mean, that's the issue that we need to assess."
Despite its technological advances and military bluster, it's doubtful that the North intends to strike first against the U.S.
Even so, Panetta said the U.S. has the capability to prevent such a strike.
"I'm very confident that American defense capabilities are able, no problem, to block a rocket like this one," he told CNN when asked about the capability of U.S. missile defense systems.
North Korea has spent decades threatening but avoiding a direct confrontation with the tens of thousands of American forces in South Korea and Japan. The government has remained firmly in power despite a drought-plagued agricultural sector that leaves many North Koreans in search of food and a crumbling economy that affords few any chance of social betterment.
"It is regrettable that the leadership in Pyongyang chose to take this course in flagrant violation of its international obligations," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters. He said the U.S. would try to further isolate North Korea in response.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the launch "highly provocative and a threat to regional security." It will only further impoverish North Koreans, she said.
Neither Carney nor Nuland elaborated on possible consequences. The White House's initial statement referred only to potential action at the U.N. Security Council, which condemned North Korea on Wednesday and said it would urgently consider "an appropriate response." The threat of sanctions is unclear; China, North Korea's benefactor, holds veto power.
Analysts were mixed on whether a tougher reaction was appropriate.
"There has been an unspoken tendency in the United States to discount these tests as yet another foolish attempt by the technologically backward and bizarre country," said Victor Cha, a Korea expert at Georgetown University and former White House policy director for Asia. "This is no longer acceptable. The apparent success of this test makes North Korea one of the only nonallied countries outside of China and the Soviet Union to develop long-range missile technology that could potentially reach the United States."
The administration's restrained response contrasts with the warnings of military action against Iran and Syria for actions far less imminently threatening to the United States, but directly threatening Israel, an important ally.
Obama has said he won't allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and insists that he won't get involved in a policy of containment similar to the one the U.S. is stuck with in North Korea. He promises that he isn't bluffing.
The U.S. and Israel have held talks over what benchmarks in uranium enrichment and weapons work the Iranians would have to reach for possible military action to be triggered.
What's clear from his words is that Obama wouldn't wait for Iran to have a bomb, meaning the threshold for a U.S. attack against Tehran is far lower than against North Korea, which tested its first nuclear weapon more than six years ago.
As for Syria, the president has issued a "red line" to President Bashar Assad's government concerning chemical weapons that have never been used and are accompanied by no weapon capable of delivering them anywhere near the United States.
U.S. officials fear the increasingly desperate Assad could deploy the weapons in a bid to win a civil war that has left more than 40,000 people dead since March 2011. Or, he could transfer some weapons to anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli militant groups such as Hezbollah.
Judged on capacity and not intent, either of those scenarios would pale in comparison to the North being able to fire a nuclear warhead at the continental United States. But with U.S. officials convinced that Assad's exit may be nearing, the sterner American cautions in Syria may be less likely to be tested. If they are, the United States wouldn't have to worry about nuclear weapons as a counter-threat.
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