Contagion? Not this time. Developing nations are defying concern that the tumbling Turkish lira and Argentine peso will infect global financial assets, Bloomberg News reported. While pundits including Mark Mobius said the pain for emerging markets isn’t over and Paul Krugman said the current wobble had the whiff of a crisis to it, markets have been far more sanguine. On Thursday, 16 of 24 emerging-market currencies gained as the lira plunged more than 4 percent even after Turkey’s emergency interest-rate hike. Meanwhile, Argentina’s peso extended a two-day slide.
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Resources Per Country
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus
- Fiji
- Georgia
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
Turkey’s banks will likely benefit from Wednesday night’s interest-rate increase, though there will be some pain as well, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the assessment of some analysts after the central bank’s emergency move to halt a run on the lira. While there will be a short-term hit to funding costs and lending margins, banks will be helped as the move stems panic in financial markets, according to Cagdas Dogan, a banking analyst at Istanbul-based BGC Partners Inc.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes four years in office on May 26. He’s used the time to give India its biggest tax reform, overhauled a century-old bankruptcy law, revived stalled projects and got the World Bank to say Asia’s No. 3 economy is a much better place to do business. Still, all’s not well with the economy, Bloomberg News reported. Once-trusted state-owned banks are facing allegations of fraud, their soured-debt pile is larger than ever, investors are dumping Indian stocks and bonds amid a stronger dollar and U.S. Treasury yields.
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Santos Ltd. plunged the most since 2016 after rejecting Harbour Energy Ltd.’s $10.9 billion final offer and terminating talks, saying its proposal was too low and too risky, Bloomberg News reported. The Australian oil and gas producer said Tuesday its independent directors, managing director and chief executive officer unanimously rejected the proposal because it didn’t represent the full value of the company, as well as being too complex and high-risk. Oil prices and shares of its domestic peers have rallied 14 percent and 18 percent, respectively, since the initial proposal, Santos said.
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Turkey’s banks are at risk of losing their reputation as the crown jewel of the economy as the government’s single-minded focus on growth threatens to undermine profits and cause an uptick in bad loans, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders in one of the world’s fastest-expanding emerging markets are finding themselves at the center of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions of winning another election in an early vote called for June 24.
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State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by assets, joined its private peers in shrugging off losses as investors believe the lenders have finally got a handle on bad loans, Bloomberg News reported. SBI’s shares surged to a six-week high after it reported a record loss on Tuesday, weighed down by a doubling in provisions for soured debt. A similar contrarian market reaction was seen after No. 2 private lender ICICI Bank Ltd. and smaller rival Axis Bank Ltd. reported poorer-than-expected earnings.
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As corporate defaults pile up in China’s onshore bond market, a unit of a once-promising energy conglomerate with $4.8 billion of debt and a checkered past said it won’t be able to meet its payment obligation Monday, Bloomberg News reported. CEFC Shanghai International Group Ltd., a unit of the privately-held CEFC China Energy Co., failed to repay 2 billion yuan ($313 million) of bonds but said it will seek to pay back the notes in six months, according to a statement on the Shanghai Clearing House website.
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Toys ‘R’ Us in Australia has lost its battle for survival with directors today putting the 44-store chain into administration. The move threatens up to 2700 jobs, including 700 full-time positions. Insolvency firm McGrathNicol said partners Jason Preston, Keith Crawford and Barry Kogan were put into Toys ‘R’ Us (Australia) and Babies ‘R’ Us (Australia) after the withdrawal of the final bidder looking over the struggling businesses, The West Australian reported. The stores, including four in Perth.
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At least 30 companies of the region are undergoing insolvency proceedings filed by banks before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chandigarh, since the enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) last year, The Tribune reported. “These include Amtek Auto, SEL Manufacturing, James Hospitality, Arcee Ispat Udyog Ltd, Mor Farms (P) Ltd and Castex Technologies. The cases have been filed by the creditors, including Corporation Bank, SBI and PNB,” said sources. Amtek Auto has a liability of Rs 14,000 crore.
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Kingtec Steel Corporation, based in China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang, is preparing to apply for bankruptcy as a result of spiraling debt, the company said in a statement on Friday. Kingtec said it would be unable to pay all of its debts, including a 550 million yuan ($86.26 million) bond issued in 2013, Reuters reported. It blamed its problems on the poor steel business environment in Xinjiang as well as a “gradual deterioration” in its own operating conditions. It has ceased production.
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