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It is a truism that the finances of countries, as well as companies, feel the impact from declining commodity prices. This can be good for energy importing nations, and the positive effect on consumption can boost economic growth.

Dali Foods Group Co has given the Hong Kong IPO market a burst of excitement, launching a HK$10.4bn ($1.34bn) listing that could become the biggest float by a privately-owned company in the city this year. Bankers are touting it as the first deal in a long time to conduct a real institutional bookbuilding rather than simply relying on Chinese state-owned enterprises for demand. Rashmi Kumar reports.

HSBC took a big step forward in furthering its China ambitions this week, entering into an onshore joint venture securities firm with Shenzhen Qianhai Financial Holdings. The first priority is to launch an onshore debt business but the bank has ambitions eventually to offer a full range of investment banking services. Rev Hui reports.

Primary activity has finally returned to the Asia ex-Japan high yield market following a hiatus of close to three months, with Future Land Development Holdings launching a deal on Thursday. While the pipeline remains thin, market participants are taking heart that not all is lost for the asset class, writes Rev Hui.

I feel for today’s bankers. Nearly every bank is cutting headcount and the toll this is taking on the quality of their output is becoming visible in ludicrous ways.

Sri Lanka’s Bank of Ceylon is seeking a fundraising of up to $200m, returning to loans after a two year absence. But while the borrower is approaching lenders at a time when they are very liquid, it may struggle to woo new banks, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

Chinese property developers have been quick to capitalise on opportunities in their domestic bond market this year, taking advantage of a new funding channel available at a much cheaper cost. But with more and more issuers expected to use the onshore route, debt investors need to start better reading the risks.

Investment banks all want the same things — more capital, smaller loan books, and more concentration on more profitable business. When banks announce a turnaround, they should be judged on specifics, not aspirations, and on this, Standard Chartered’s strategy update is pretty watery fare.

Peru took some stick from bankers for its return to the European bond markets last week, but the deal is a pleasing sign that Latin American issuers are finally looking at the long term.

October may have had the highest ever monthly volume for green bond issuance, but there is still one major capital markets sector that has yet to join the market — and it’s high time that it should.

The corporate hybrid capital market is a fragile origami designed to please rating agencies, tax authorities, accountants and investors all at once. Standard & Poor’s disrupted it last week by stripping equity credit from 29 deals. The market will get over this. But fundamentally, it remains in denial: hybrids as they stand are not a stable, reliable product.

For the last seven years investors have fretted about whether the emerging markets would be taken down as the innocent bystander in first the global financial crisis and then the eurozone crisis. So it was with a touch of schadenfreude that we read Fitch’s report this week that said the tables have turned: US investors now see emerging markets as the top risk to US credit markets over the next year.