Hong Kong's Peg raises risk real estate prices may 'roll over' - Financial Times (blog)

China confirms Libya arms sale talks

Temasek buys CCB shares for $2.8bn

SFr move: relief for CEE borrowers

Indian IT hiring down 49 per cent in August

India to offer up to 427.7m ONGC shares

Vale in talks to sell mega iron ore vessels

CNPC wins deal to develop Afghan oil

War damage to hit return of Libya crude

TCS leads race for Lufthansa’s IT subsidiary

Hong Kong’s Peg raises risk real estate prices may ‘roll over’

Rio and Anglo to sell Palabora stakes

Markets, down

China confirms Libya arms sale talks
A Chinese official confirmed on Monday that Colonel Gaddafi’s regime sent representatives to China to discuss buying weapons from arms companies long after the imposition of UN sanctions but said the Chinese government was unaware of the visit at the time, the FT reports. Jiang Yu, the official, also stressed that no contracts were signed and no arms shipments were made.

Temasek buys CCB shares for $2.8bn
Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, bought shares in China Construction Bank for as much as HK $21.7bn ($2.8bn) about eight weeks after paring its holdings, Bloomberg reports. Temasek purchased 4.4 bn shares, paying as much as HK$4.94 apiece and increasing its stake to 8.1 per cent of the Hong Kong-listed shares, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.

SFr move: relief for CEE borrowers
Surprise relief for Hungary’s hard-pressed borrowers with Tuesday’s announcement from the Swiss central bank of a minimum exchange rate of SFr1.20 against the euro. By setting a floor for Swissie/euro rates, the move also bolstered the floating exchange rates of central and eastern Europe, notably that of Hungary’s volatile forint, the beyondbrics report.

Indian IT hiring down 49 per cent in August
Recruitment by Indian IT companies witnessed a slowdown in the month of August, owing to the crisis in the US and Europe region, but the overall hiring mood in the country is upbeat, the Economic Times reports. It might take 2-3 months for recruitment activities in the IT sector to gain momentum, according to recruitment tendering platform MyHiringClub.com, which said that hiring activity saw a 49 per cent drop in the IT and ITeS sectors in August vis-a-vis the previous month.

India to offer up to 427.7m ONGC shares
India’s government will offer up to 426.77 million shares in state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) in a deal valued at about 110 billion rupees ($2.4 bn) at current market prices, Reuters reports. The transaction is expected to be priced on Sept. 27.

Vale in talks to sell mega iron ore vessels
Brazilian mining giant Vale is in talks with Chinese and other ship owners to sell or lease its planned fleet of giant bulk carriers, Reuters reports. The move comes less than three months after Vale’s first iron ore carrier, at 362 meters long the world’s largest dry-bulk vessel, failed to gain access to Chinese ports and was forced to divert to Italy on its maiden voyage.

CNPC wins deal to develop Afghan oil
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation’s biggest oil and natural gas company, won a bid to develop an oilfield in northern Afghanistan, beating rivals from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Pakistan, China Daily reports. The award is China’s second prominent acquisition of Afghan raw materials after the Metallurgical Corp of China won the right in 2007 to mine the country’s biggest known copper deposit, at Aynak, south of Kabul.

War damage to hit return of Libya crude
Libyan oil production will not return to pre-war levels until late next year at the earliest, with many of the country’s oil facilities having suffered heavy damage and looting during the conflict, according to the newly appointed chairman of the country’s National Oil Company, the FT reports.

TCS leads race for Lufthansa’s IT subsidiary
India’s largest software services exporter, Tata Consultancy Services, has put in a $500m bid to acquire a controlling stake in Lufthansa Systems, the captive information technology unit of the Frankfurt-based airline, the Economic Times reports. The bid amount represents the upfront payment TCS is willing to offer in return for a deal that will comprise a multi-year IT outsourcing contract from Lufthansa.

Hong Kong’s Peg raises risk real estate prices may ‘roll over’
Hong Kong’s property market is showing signs it may “roll over” as prices drop over the next one or two years with the city’s currency peg linking it to the risk of higher U.S. interest rates, according to MGPA, Bloomberg reports. Prices of the city’s office buildings may decline as much as 20 per cent while home values may fall up to 30 per cent during that period, said John Saunders, Asia chief executive officer of MGPA, a private-equity real estate investment firm that manages $10bn of assets in Asia and Europe.

Rio and Anglo to sell Palabora stakes
Rio Tinto and Anglo American plan to sell their stakes in South Africa’s dominant copper producer as its Palabora mine nears the end of its life, the FT reports. Rio, which is the controlling shareholder of the Palabora Mining Co with a 58 per cent stake, said it was “confident there will be a number of interested buyers” but did not identify names. The combined value of its and Anglo’s 17 per cent stake was R5.15bn ($723m) on the Johannesburg exchange on Friday.

Emerging Markets
MSCI Emerging Market Index down -0.10% at 988.59

Europe
FTSE down +1.46% at 5,177
RTF up +0.74% at 1,629
Wig Index up +1.32% at 39,506
FTSE 300 Eurotop up +0.12% at 911.13

Americas
DJIA down -2.20% at 11,240
S&P 500 down -2.53% at 1,174
Bovespa down -2.71% at 54,998

Asia
Nikkei 225 down -2.21% at 8,591
Topix down -1.93% at 741.20
Hang Seng up +0.48% at 19,711
Shanghai Composite down -0.33% at 2,471
MSCI Asia ex-Japan down -0.48% at 493.84
S&P CNX Nifty Index up +0.94% at 5,064

Currencies
€/$ 1.42 (1.41)
$/¥ 77.03 (76.92)

Commodities
Brent Crude (ICE) up +1.09 at 111.17
Light Crude (Nymex) down -1.71 at 84.74
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +20.20 at 1,894

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