Some of Hong Kong’s biggest banks yesterday published full-page newspaper advertisements calling for the preservation of law and order in the territory and condemning violence, as weeks of pro-democracy protests show no sign of abating.
HSBC Holdings PLC, Standard Chartered PLC and Bank of East Asia Ltd (東亞銀行), which published the advertisements in major newspapers, urged the restoration of social order.
Continuing protests could worsen the effects on the territory’s economy, especially for small and medium enterprises, Bank of East Asia said on Wednesday after reporting a 75 percent plunge in its first-half net profit due to loan write-downs in mainland China.
Photo: AFP
The protests are already exacting a toll on Hong Kong’s economy and tourism, with the territory on the verge of its first recession in a decade.
Standard Chartered said in the advertisements that the bank supports the territory’s government to uphold social order and “guard the status of Hong Kong as an international financial center.”
HSBC said that all parties must resolve disagreement through communication rather than violence.
Neither HSBC nor Bank of East Asia referred to the government in their advertisements.
Hong Kong stocks are poised for their worst quarter since 2015 and corporate earnings are unlikely to save them.
After a sell-off erased more than US$600 billion from the territory’s equities, attractive valuations stood as a potential bright spot, but those multiples do not look so good when analysts keep slashing their profit forecasts for this year.
Their call for an average 19 percent slump in operating income would be the biggest contraction for Hang Seng Index companies since the global financial crisis, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
While a protracted US-China trade dispute and a weak yuan are to blame for a big chunk of the profit reductions, the latest cuts reveal a deeper issue.
With Hong Kong’s slowing economy buckling under the pressure of 11 weeks of protests, demand for everything from bank loans to utility gas might be jeopardized.
“The third quarter could be even worse given the local political situation and the trade war escalation,” Amber Hill Capital Ltd (安山資本) asset management director Jackson Wong (黃志陽) said. “Potential downside surprises have not been fully reflected in share prices.”
A weak yuan is also bad news for the Hang Seng Index: Its firms get an average 64 percent of revenue from the mainland and 22 percent from Hong Kong, Morgan Stanley calculated.
The currency broke past the key HK$7 per US dollar this month for the first time since 2008, and has traded weaker than that level for more than two weeks.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS