Asia Pacific

China has sought yet more intervention to heal its wounded stock market, with the Shanghai, Shenzhen and futures bourses mooting the idea of new circuit breakers that would suspend trading of shares altogether if certain thresholds are breached. But market watchers are divided over whether the move would be a blessing or spell more trouble, writes John Loh.

The Japanese equities market is set for a huge bump in IPO volumes following the announcement that the ¥1.39tr ($11.5bn) triple listings of Japan Post will launch in October.

Hong Kong Tian Yuan Manganese International Trade, which sent out invitations for a $150m loan this week, is now understood to have cancelled the transaction after second thoughts on the impact of a weaker renminbi.

Tata Steel’s attempt to cut pricing on a $1.5bn portion of a loan completed in 2014 has met resistance from lenders, who are concerned about the outlook of the company’s sector. With the borrower also understood to be looking at tweaking covenants, the transaction is proving to be a test of client-bank relationships. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

HKEx boss Charles Li hinted on Monday that the recent equity turbulence and surprise currency devaluation meant conditions were not ripe to expand the Stock Connect programme to include Shenzhen. He is wrong and to delay would be a terrible idea.

Following the surprise devaluation of the renminbi by the People’s Bank of China, speculation has been rife about whether Hong Kong will move its peg from across the Atlantic to its neighbour. In separate reports, ANZ and AXA Investment Managers conclude that a shift from the US dollar to the RMB is unlikely in the short term due the latter’s market volatility and unfinished internationalisation, writes Daniel Monteiro.

The Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) introduced a new structure into Asia’s debt market this week, becoming the first issuer to sell bonds backed by loans. Some investors shied away from the unfamiliar format, but the Chinese policy bank raised $1bn from the dual tranche offering.

The China foreign exchange trade system (CFETS) published a list of the first institutions to be granted access to the Chinese interbank bond market (CIBM) since a streamlined programme was introduced in July.

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Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEx) CEO Charles Li said earlier this week that a stock market rout in China had made talks of expanding the mutual market access initiatives, including the expansion of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect to Shenzhen, more difficult.

Citi has appointed David Ratliff to the newly created position of head of public sector banking for Asia Pacific. The move is part of the bank’s strategy to combine corporate and investment banking alongside markets and securities services coverage of public sector clients in the region.

Respondents to a new survey by Standard Chartered Hong Kong branch (StanChart HK) are expecting further devaluation of the RMB, but an even larger proportion said they would continue to hold or even expand the quota of RMB-denominated assets in their portfolios.