FirstFT: Chinese language share buybacks soar to file excessive

In right this moment’s publication:

• A possible thaw in China-India relations

• North Korea’s alleged involvement within the Ukraine conflict

• Sikh separatist chief vows to maintain combating India from Toronto

Good morning. Share buybacks on mainland China’s greatest exchanges have soared to a file excessive this 12 months as Beijing pushes for firms to return money to shareholders as a part of its efforts to revive a flagging inventory market.

There have been Rmb235bn ($33bn) in buybacks throughout mainland-listed shares thus far in 2024, greater than double final 12 months’s whole and much surpassing the earlier file of Rmb133bn in 2022, in line with Chinese language monetary knowledge supplier Wind.

The frenzy of share repurchases comes as China’s authorities unleashes the most important spherical of financial stimulus for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic.

The benchmark CSI 300 index has risen greater than 20 per cent over the previous month amid Beijing’s bid to breathe new life into its fairness market after years of dismal efficiency.

Jason Bedford, a China banking analyst previously at UBS and asset supervisor Bridgewater, stated Beijing was in search of an fairness rally by encouraging buybacks. “Clearly, the federal government has been pushing this all year long,” he stated. Learn extra in regards to the central financial institution scheme.

• Chinese language financial system: Beijing unveiled a few of its greatest cuts to benchmark lending charges in years as the federal government stepped up efforts to hit its year-end goal of about 5 per cent progress in gross home product.

Right here’s what else I’m preserving tabs on right this moment:

• Financial knowledge: Hong Kong stories September inflation knowledge and South Korea releases its producer worth index.

• Brics summit: Leaders of Brics international locations collect in Kazan, Russia. India’s Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping are each on account of attend.

• International financial system: The IMF publishes its newest World Financial Outlook, a twice-yearly evaluation and projections of financial prospects for the worldwide financial system, plus its International Monetary Stability Report.

5 extra prime tales

1. India and China have reached an settlement on patrolling preparations alongside their disputed border, a senior Indian official has stated, paving the way in which for an easing of tensions between the 2 international locations. Clashes between the 2 sides on the frontier in japanese Ladakh in 2020 left at the least 24 troops, principally Indians, lifeless.

2. South Korea has known as on Russia to cease the deployment of North Korean troops to battle on Moscow’s aspect in Ukraine, amid allegations by Seoul and Ukraine that North Korean commandos are on Russian territory and getting ready for battle. Right here’s what we find out about Pyongyang’s alleged involvement within the Ukraine battle.

3. Iran’s foreign money and shares have declined and most international airways have suspended flights in anticipation of an Israeli retaliatory assault on the Islamic republic. Many Iranians at the moment are deeply anxious in regards to the prospect of a possible conflict between Iran and Israel, which has vowed a “exact and lethal” response after Tehran’s ballistic missile strike earlier this month.

4. Disney has appointed former Morgan Stanley boss James Gorman as its chair and introduced plans to call a brand new chief govt in “early 2026”. That is the primary time the media big has set a timeline for probably the most drawn-out and consequential succession saga in Hollywood.

5. Kamala Harris raised practically $1bn prior to now three months, as she surged previous Donald Trump within the cash race to amass an enormous marketing campaign conflict chest for the ultimate stretch of the US presidential election. The Democratic candidate pulled in more money from July to the tip of September than the previous Republican president has managed since January 2023.

Information in-depth

Inderjeet Singh Gosal says he’s not afraid to die for an impartial Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab area. The 35-year-old’s declaration sounds incongruous as he sits in his snug residence in Toronto’s suburbs. However after the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, his predecessor as head of the Khalistan motion, the danger is actual. The deadly capturing of Nijjar in Vancouver final 12 months has led to more and more fraught relations between Ottawa and New Delhi.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• What the world thinks of Harris vs Trump: Strongman leaders across the globe would welcome a victory for the Republican former president, writes Gideon Rachman.

• Lebanon’s sectarian tensions: Israel’s bombing marketing campaign threatens the fragile stability between Lebanon’s three most important spiritual teams.

• Purchase now, pay later: The fast-growing shopper finance phenomenon has lower form-filling and prolonged credit score checks for households in want of borrowing. However its very frictionlessness heightens the potential for debt to spiral, writes Patrick Jenkins.

Chart of the day

Buying and selling on the earth’s second-largest IPO of 2024 begins right this moment, however retail traders have already given a lukewarm reception to the $3.3bn itemizing of Hyundai Motor India, amid a slowdown in automobile gross sales within the nation. The weak early bidding for Hyundai’s Mumbai providing was in distinction to different blockbuster floats this 12 months in India, with its inventory market changing into the world’s largest itemizing venue exterior the US.

Take a break from the information

Sunreef Yachts started in the identical Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk the place Lech Wałęsa beforehand labored and began the Solidarity opposition motion that helped topple Poland’s communist regime. Again then it was aimed primarily at middle-class consumers. Now it’s producing luxurious catamarans for purchasers together with Rafael Nadal and Julio Iglesias.

Extra contributions from Gordon Smith and Irwin Cruz