Invest Positively

How far can Chinese markets fall before systemic risks start to breakout?

Chinese market regulators blame short sellers for the rout in the country’s equity markets, but the accusation seems baseless as overseas money managers only represent a fraction of exchange traded funds tracking mainland stocks.

Mrs Zhu is just the type of investor the Chinese government should worry about as it tries to engineer a turnaround in the country’s stock markets, whose massive swings have heightened fears for the country’s financial health.

Boutique fund manager ICH Gemini said on Wednesday it has launched a private equity fund in Singapore with at least US$110 million in capital that it will invest in mid-sized companies at growing or mezzanine stages.

Recent research and surveys revealed some of the unique characteristics of this early generation of mainland investors who are experiencing their first taste of the market thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

What are the chances of one casually spending millions on a penny stock just before a big state firm agrees to take over the company? Very low, right?

Top executives from 21 securities firms spent the morning of Saturday July 4 pinned to government office chairs while the future of China's stock markets hung in the balance. Caxin

Bankrupts in Singapore now have a clear time frame to meet specific repayment goals in order to be discharged, under changes to the law passed in Parliament yesterday.

Many of China’s successful entrepreneurs have become huge celebrities on the mainland attracting an enormous number of fans.

Singapore-listed China New Town Development (CNTD), backed by China’s largest policy bank, has lined up a strong pipeline of projects and believes a turnaround is “just around the corner” after two years of losses.

I refer to the announcement by Noble Group on July 14 that it has appointed David Yeow, a lawyer who is resident in Singapore, as a new independent director.

While it's no secret that Asia is the world's millionaire factory, what may not be as well known is just how young the region's ultra-moneyed are. Asia's millennials rich list, compiled by wealth research firm Wealth-X, reveals the 10 wealthiest individuals in the region aged between 18 and 34. The term millennials refers to "80s and 90s babies", or to be exact, those born between 1981 to 1997, as defined by think tank Pew Research Center. Unsurprisingly, Chinese dominate the ranking, accounting for nine out of the top 10. Those who feature on the ranking, however, have made their wealth in very different ways, from jewellery to real estate to technology. Some are self-made and others the lucky inheritors of family fortunes, but one thing's for certain: there's some serious dosh floating around the region. Click ahead to find out who these young and incredibly cashed up individuals are. CNBC

Hong Kong’s stock watchdog took the rare step of saying trading in Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd shares can’t resume without its approval, raising the prospect they’ll remain suspended for the foreseeable future.

The Bankruptcy Amendment Bill has been passed with the aim of improving the bankruptcy regime. Changes will ensure that bankrupts have a greater certainty as to when they are eligible to be discharged.

When Mr Loh Boon Chye left the board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in 2012, equity trading volume on the bourse had been steadily dwindling for years.

Former investment banker Loh Boon Chye, who assumes his new role as chief executive officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Tuesday this week, should helm an exchange that is entirely profit-driven with no regulatory functions, says David Gerald, president and CEO of Securities Investors Association of Singapore (SIAS).

The share consolidations that numerous mainboard-listed firms have undergone thus far to comply with Singapore Exchange’s minimum trading price (MTP) rule seem to have largely turned out to be a case of one step forward, two steps back - hardly the most encouraging sign for the many others that may soon have to take a similar path.

Fan Xiaolin, an engineer in Changsha in central China, thought he was safe when he deposited his family’s savings of 800,000 yuan ($130,000) in a private finance company he said was recommended by employees of state-owned Bank of China.

China was taking great strides in liberalising its financial infrastructure until its stock market crash began last month, but Beijing’s attempts to arrest the rout have torpedoed one after another of its reform goals.

Faced with a stomach-turning slide in share prices, many Chinese companies are taking matters into their own hands with a tactic that experts say is bound to backfire: they’re pressing the pause button.

Chinese stock traders want Beijing to create a super-regulator to take over the investor relations and communication duties of existing regulators, which they say have co-ordinated poorly in their handling of the country’s stock market crash.

China’s securities regulator took the drastic step of ordering shareholders with stakes of more than five per cent from selling shares for the next six months in a bid to halt a plunge in stock prices that is starting to roil global financial markets.

Chinese hedge funds have been big short sellers of locally traded commodities, including iron ore, steel and rubber, after redeploying cash from tumbling equity markets where authorities have slapped curbs on trading, fund managers and traders said.

After reading the letter “Achieving a robust and vibrant securities market” by Ong Chong Tee of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (BT, June 26), trading representatives (TRs) cannot help but feel that it will be business as usual in the equities market here even with a new CEO at the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

For Chinese President Xi Jinping, mission No 1 has been preserving Communist Party rule. That now means stabilising the stock market.

Noble Group’s board of directors has set up an independent board committee to review its accounting practices, months after being in the spotlight over critics’ accusations of poor governance and lack of transparency.

After seeing billions wiped off its market value, embattled commodities trader Noble Group has finally called for an external review of its accounting practices, in a bid to boost investor confidence.

Mainland Chinese stocks tumbled sharply at the open on Wednesday as sell orders piled up in an increasingly fragile market where an unprecedented 51 per cent of all listed shares are now voluntarily suspended from trade, locking up some US$2.2 trillion of previously tradeable market capitalisation.

Chinese authorities and financial institutions have undertaken coordinated actions to stem the bleeding in the equity markets, but it appears that sentiments were hardly swayed.

China Fibretech shares, which underwent a 50-into-one consolidation in May, have undergone hugely volatile trading this week, prompting dealers to once again question the wisdom of forcing companies to undergo share consolidation to meet the Singapore Exchange’s new minimum trading price (MTP) of S$0.20.

Chinese shipbuilder JES International could be taking legal action against its former CEO and chairman Jin Xin, after it uncovered possible financial irregularities related to him. It has also started proceedings against a former employee who absconded with the group’s administrative records and seals.

A female employee has delayed an investigation into dubious payments to the former boss of Chinese shipbuilder JES International by “absconding” with the company’s books.