FirstFT: Chinese language share buybacks soar to report excessive

In right now’s e-newsletter:

• A possible thaw in China-India relations

• North Korea’s alleged involvement within the Ukraine battle

• Sikh separatist chief vows to maintain preventing India from Toronto

Good morning. Share buybacks on mainland China’s largest exchanges have soared to a report 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 to this point in 2024, greater than double final 12 months’s whole and much surpassing the earlier report of Rmb133bn in 2022, in accordance with Chinese language monetary knowledge supplier Wind.

The push of share repurchases comes as China’s authorities unleashes the largest 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, mentioned Beijing was in search of an fairness rally by encouraging buybacks. “Clearly, the government has been pushing this throughout the year,” he mentioned. Learn extra concerning the central financial institution scheme.

• Chinese language economic system: Beijing unveiled a few of its largest 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 holding tabs on right now:

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

• Brics summit: Leaders of Brics nations collect in Kazan, Russia. India’s Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping are each resulting from attend.

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

5 extra high tales

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

2. South Korea has known as on Russia to cease the deployment of North Korean troops to battle on Moscow’s facet 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 forex and shares have declined and most overseas airways have suspended flights in anticipation of an Israeli retaliatory assault on the Islamic republic. Many Iranians are actually deeply anxious concerning the prospect of a possible battle between Iran and Israel, which has vowed a “precise and deadly” 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 large has set a timeline for the most drawn-out and consequential succession saga in Hollywood.

5. Kamala Harris raised practically $1bn previously three months, as she surged previous Donald Trump within the cash race to amass an enormous marketing campaign battle chest for the ultimate stretch of the US presidential election. The Democratic candidate pulled in additional cash from July to the top 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 comfy house 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 taking pictures 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 steadiness between Lebanon’s three foremost non secular teams.

• Purchase now, pay later: The fast-growing client finance phenomenon has reduce 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 this planet’s second-largest IPO of 2024 begins right now, however retail traders have already given a lukewarm reception to the $3.3bn itemizing of Hyundai Motor India, amid a slowdown in automotive 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 turning 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 shoppers together with Rafael Nadal and Julio Iglesias.

Extra contributions from Gordon Smith and Irwin Cruz