Hang Seng Index closes slightly higher on March 4th
Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong – On March 4th, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed slightly higher, rising 6.53 points or 0.04% to end at 16595.97 points. The total transaction volume on the main board for the day was HK$106.867 billion.
However, the state-owned enterprise index fell by 0.28% to close at 5712.83 points, and the Hang Seng Technology Index also saw a decrease of 0.38%, closing at 3474.77 points.
Some notable movements in blue-chip stocks included Tencent Holdings falling 0.43% to close at HK$276.2, while China Mobile rose 2.14% to close at HK$66.9. HSBC Holdings fell 0.9% to close at HK$60.65, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange remained unchanged at HK$240.
Among Hong Kong local stocks, Cheung Kong Holdings rose by 3.09% to close at HK$36.75, and Sun Hung Kai Properties saw a 1.7% increase, closing at HK$80.8. Henderson Land had no significant movement, closing at HK$22.4.
In Chinese financial stocks, Bank of China remained steady at HK$3.08, while China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell by 0.61% and 0.74% respectively. Ping An of China and China Life also saw a decline in their stock prices.
In the petroleum and petrochemical sector, Sinopec rose by 1.15% to close at HK$4.38, PetroChina rose by 1.8% to close at HK$6.22, and China National Offshore Oil saw a significant increase of 3.34%, closing at HK$16.7.
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
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Hong Kong stocks rose 0.04% on the 4th to close at 16595.97 points_ Oriental Fortune Network
Fashion: the government “will support” the proposed law aimed at penalizing “fast fashion”
2024-03-04 14:22:04
Low-cost clothing in excess is in the sights of the executive power. “The government will support the bill” aimed at financially penalizing “fast fashion” and banning the advertising of its brands, said this Monday the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, during an event in Paris bringing together sustainable fashion players.
The text, carried by Anne-Cécile Violland, will be defended by the deputies of the Horizons group on March 14, during their parliamentary “niche”. It targets “fast-fashion” brands and e-commerce sites which offer an innumerable quantity of low-cost, lower-quality clothing, most of which are imported from Asia. It thus provides for a modulation of the “ecocontribution” paid by companies according to their environmental impact, in order to reduce the price gap between products from “fast fashion” and those from more virtuous sectors.
“Costs of decontamination” and “collection” of used clothing
The objective is to “reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry”, by providing better information for consumers, and by prohibiting advertising for companies and products relating to this ephemeral fashion. “By selling these products at this price, (these companies) make profits but they leave the planet (…) having to find public resources to eliminate the damage caused by their mode of production,” denounced the minister during the closing speech. “There is something missing from the bill,” believes Christophe Béchu, who mentions in particular “the costs of decontamination” and “collection” of used clothing.
“In its current form, the proposed law does not address the environmental impact of fashion, but affects the purchasing power of French consumers,” a spokesperson for Shein in France immediately reacted. The proposed law “targets the activity of a few efficient players, without impact study or evaluation of its real environmental benefits”, she further defended.
The Minister of Ecological Transition also announced that a public consultation concerning environmental labeling for textiles will be launched “in mid-March”. The stated goal is “that from the end of April, we can have something that can be the subject of a decree”. “If the players (in this industry) validate all of this,” a method to define the criteria for this display will then be defined.
Finally, Christophe Béchu revealed that the government will “carry out a targeted advertising campaign against fast fashion”, like that of the “resellers” of Ademe (Environment and Environmental Management Agency). energy) which “aroused a bit of emotion” because it targeted “physical stores”. This series of humorous television spots from the ecological transition agency praising deconsumption has aroused the anger of traders.
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Fashion: the government “will support” the proposed law aimed at penalizing “fast fashion”
“Nikkei Tops 40,000: Staying There May Hinge On This $7 Billion Share Buyback”
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Nikkei Tops 40,000: Staying There May Hinge On This $7 Billion Share Buyback
As global capital rediscovers Japan, it stands to reason that battle-tested financiers will require regular doses of evidence that the nation’s corporate governance renaissance is real.
It’s not personal. It’s just that, as with Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football, this isn’t investors’ first brush with things-are-different-this-time chatter surrounding Asia’s second-biggest economy.
Granted, efforts over the last decade to increase returns on equity and give shareholders a louder voice are working, pushing the Nikkei 225 Stock Average above 40,000 for the first time. Still, 2024 will likely be a trust-but-verify year.
In this context, the effort by U.S. activist fund Elliott Investment Management to prod group Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s biggest property group, to announce a nearly $7 billion share buyback is as good as any reality check on which to keep an eye.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times was first to report that the firm had taken a more than 2% stake in Mitsui Fudosan. Elliott is urging the developer to reduce its interest in Oriental Land, which operates Tokyo Disney Resort.
This push is worth tracking for two reasons. One, because the 82-year-old Mitsui Fudosan is a Japan Inc. icon that checks many boxes in terms of why Japan is returning to favor.
As Jesper Koll, expert director at Monex Group, told CNBC: “The pressure on corporate Japan is now relentless—lazy balance sheets will no longer be tolerated. Even previously untouchable elite companies—Mitsui Fudosan is the undisputed leader in both local and global Japan-led real estate development—are now targeted.”
Two, Elliott has proven to have a knack for settling on prescient targets for change. Twelve months ago, the firm that Paul Singer founded managed to cajole Dai Nippon Printing Co. to execute the largest share buyback in its 147-year history.
Dai Nippon was a savvy choice by the Florida-based investment firm. Despite its long history, it’s hardly a well-known name globally. But Dai Nippon makes for a great microcosm of why global capital is racing Japan’s way. The company is cash-rich, quietly holds a commanding presence in global supply chains and its stock tends to trade well below book value.
For example, Dai Nippon enjoys a sizable global share of components required to make smartphones, electric vehicles, semiconductors and other vital technology. On any list of underappreciated-but-promising Japanese stocks, Dai Nippon deserves a place near the top.
All of which makes Elliott’s focus on Mitsui Fudosan so interesting.
Of course, investors can debate whether the sell-down of shares in Oriental Land that Elliott craves is the best course of action. Might Mitsui Fudosan decide instead to use the proceeds from its 5.4% stake in the developer to invest more aggressively in future growth projects?
Whatever happens, the pressure Elliott is exerting—and the apparent lack of pushback by Mitsui Fudosan—is a clear sign that Japan is a different place than it was in 2014.
That was the year Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party finally got serious about raising Japan Inc.’s financial game. It began imposing a U.K.-inspired stewardship code to prod companies to increase return on capital, end old-economy cross-shareholdings arrangements with friendly business groups and give shareholders a louder voice.
A decade on, these upgrades are finally gaining traction. The clearest evidence is the Nikkei surging past its 1989 “bubble economy” highs. This is helping replace Tokyo’s status as a cautionary tale with a hot-investment-destination ethos that may be just getting started.
Can the rally in Nikkei, up more than 46% in the last 12 months, continue? Only time will tell. But how this bull run proceeds will have much to do with how well Kishida’s party plays its cards.
Sadly, the deck isn’t might not be as hot as many global investors scrambling this way think. The problem is that the LDP’s success in pulling corporate Japan out of the 1980s hasn’t been matched elsewhere in Asia’s second-biggest economy.
The background here is that in December 2012, when the LDP returned to power, it did so with bold talk of structural-reform shock therapy to come. Mostly, though, that meant the Bank of Japan supersizing its quantitative easing program and weakening the yen 30%.
Exports boomed and corporate profits swelled. But then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly shelved plans to cut bureaucracy, internationalize labor practices, rekindle innovation, increase productivity
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“Nikkei Tops 40,000: Staying There May Hinge On This $7 Billion Share Buyback”