Headlines

Monthly sales of new energy vehicles in China fell in July for the first time in over two years, amid a yearlong slowdown in the world’s largest autos market, the Financial Times reported. Sales of NEVs, a category that includes both hybrid and fully electrified cars, declined by 4.7 per cent year-on-year in July to 80,000 vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Monday.

Household income, spending and wealth rose at the start of the year, bolstered by a strong labour market, according to the latest data, but Brexit uncertainties left consumers gloomy about the future direction of the economy, the Financial Times reported.

Five years after its annus horribilis, Malaysia Airlines is still struggling to survive, helped only by government largesse and the national carrier’s political importance, the Financial Times reported. There may be a lifeline in the form of a stake sale, but time is running out as market conditions sour, while moves to divest could leave the ruling coalition exposed to attack from its key rival. In March 2014, flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing mysteriously disappeared over the Indian Ocean, with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Thomas Cook, the UK tour operator, lost nearly a fifth of its market value after it confirmed it was seeking a further £150m on top of the £750m already secured as part of a rescue deal with its debtholders, the Financial Times reported. The Financial Times revealed on Friday that Thomas Cook was in talks with bondholders to secure the additional capital, as part of a bailout involving its largest shareholder, the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, and its lending banks.

Suddenly, fears of a full-blown financial crisis in Argentina have once again come rushing to the fore, Bloomberg News reported. In the wake of President Mauricio Macri’s stunning rout in primary elections over the weekend, investors dumped its stocks, bonds and currency en masse in a selloff that left much of Wall Street wondering whether the crisis-prone country was headed for yet another default.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. is on a mission to reduce debt after racking up $76 billion in capital expenditure in the last five years, Bloomberg News reported. The conglomerate aims to be a zero-net-debt company in 18 months, Asia’s richest man told shareholders Monday. Aiding that effort would be a decision to sell 20% of Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, at an enterprise value of $75 billion. The company will also start preparing to list its retail and telecommunications units within five years, Ambani said.

Moody’s Investors Service hasn’t said it, but investors already think it: South Africa’s credit is junk, Bloomberg News reported. The company, which rates South Africa’s debt Baa3, the lowest investment level, is due to review its assessment in November. Given Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s financial woes and its implications for government debt, the market is pricing in a downgrade. The premium investors demand to hold South Africa’s dollar bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries is almost twice as much as the average for investment-rated emerging markets.

Creditors’ hopes of resurrecting India’s Jet Airways and salvaging some value from the bankrupt airline were dealt a fresh blow on Monday as two potential investors said they were no longer interested in putting money into the business, Reuters reported. The billionaire head of Vedanta, Anil Agarwal, whose family trust Volcan Investment had said it was looking at taking a stake in Jet, backed out on Monday. Etihad Airways, which already owns a minority stake in Jet, also said it was not interested in reinvesting in the airline.

The British economy shrank in the second quarter for the first time in almost seven years as stockpiling activity slowed and Brexit uncertainty intensified against a backdrop of weaker global growth, the Financial Times reported. Output fell 0.2 per cent in the three months to June, worse than the flat performance expected by economists and down from a 0.5 per cent expansion in the first quarter, according to data from the Office for National Statistics released on Friday.

China’s factory gate prices shrank for the first time in three years in July, stoking deflation worries and adding pressure on Beijing to deliver more stimulus as the economy sputters amid an intensifying trade war with the United States. With demand slowing at home and abroad, Chinese manufacturers are having to cut prices to keep market share, depressing profit margins and discouraging the fresh investment needed to get the economy back on its feet, Reuters reported. Falling prices for crude oil, iron ore and other raw materials are also playing a part.