Asian borrowers faced with rising refinancing needs are expected to actively engage bondholders ahead of debt maturities as they look to stave off default risks, Bloomberg News reported. That means getting investors to agree to discounted buybacks and maturity extensions, so-called liability management deals that can help firms cut funding costs. More issuers are in talks with their legal advisers to reassess their future financing arrangements and capital structures because of an uncertain primary market, according to law firm Linklaters LLP.

Chinese stocks haven’t been this volatile in years as traders struggle to decide whether the $6 trillion market has bottomed out, Bloomberg News reported. Buffeted by crosscurrents ranging from the trade war and rising defaults to monetary stimulus and cheapening valuations, the Shanghai Composite Index has recorded seven straight swings of 1 percent or more -- the longest such stretch since Chinese markets crashed in 2015.

Hedge funds have found a new way to profit from the sorry state of Australia’s housing market: playing off how much poorer consumers feel as their home values decline, Bloomberg News reported. Managers including Totus Capital and Sydney’s Regal Funds Management are heaping bearish wagers on companies from JB Hi-Fi Ltd. to Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd., betting discretionary retail stocks will wobble as the country’s decades-long property boom goes into reverse and people shop less.

Indian tycoon Neeraj Singal has been arrested for allegedly siphoning off funds from Bhushan Steel, one of the biggest companies targeted under the country’s new bankruptcy act, the Financial Times reported. India’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office said late on Thursday that the businessman had been put in custody connected with “serious corporate fraud”. Mr Singal could not immediately be reached for comment.

The longer Turkish policy makers wait to stem the lira’s precipitous slide, the bigger the toll on the already fragile economy, Bloomberg News reported. The cost of insuring the nation’s debt against default climbed to a nine-year high as an almost 30 percent plunge in the exchange rate in 2018 threatens the finances of local firms that have gorged on foreign-currency loans. Turkish companies have foreign-exchange liabilities equal to about a third of the country’s gross domestic product, posing a serious threat to banks if the currency depreciation isn’t contained.

The Philippine economy grew less than expected in the second quarter amid rising inflation, according to figures released on Thursday. The Philippines’ gross domestic product rose 6 per cent year on year in the three months through June, well short of the 6.7 per cent median forecast from a Reuters poll of economists and down from revised first-quarter GDP growth of 6.6 per cent, the Financial Times reported.

Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp said on Thursday it would disburse A$100 million ($74.2 million) in cheap loans to farmers as a record dry spell hits parts of the nation, while the country’s lenders fight to regain public trust amidst an ongoing misconduct inquiry, Reuters reported. The drought in Australia’s east, one of the worst on record, is impacting every area of rural life, often with global trade and price implications. Already many cattle graziers are being forced to sell stock they can no longer feed.

Insurer Prudential is unlikely to split into two before late 2019, it said on Wednesday as growth in Asia helped it beat first-half profit forecasts, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Britain's largest listed insurer said in March it planned to demerge M&G Prudential, its UK and Europe life insurance and asset management business, into a separate business with a London listing. The remaining Prudential business will focus on Asia and the United States.

Indonesia at times felt uncomfortably close to the center of this year’s emerging-market selloff as bond yields rose for five straight months and the rupiah slid more than 6 percent, Bloomberg News reported. Some funds are now saying it’s time to get back in. Loomis Sayles & Co. is looking to boost holdings of Indonesian bonds, citing sound domestic fundamentals and inflation that is close to target. Western Asset Management Co. says a proactive central bank and the recent increase in yields may be creating a buying opportunity for the nation’s dollar-denominated debt.

Investors are watching closely to see whether Turkish banks will maintain access to the foreign funding they need to keep economic activity humming, as the economy is battered by U.S. sanctions, rating cuts, concern about a looming fine on a state bank and a plunging lira, Bloomberg News reported. Turkish lenders have a good record of foreign borrowing even at the height of a financial crisis and are strong enough to weather a slowdown, according to bank executives.