* Support lacking after decreased short-selling: traders* Sinohydro debuts strongly, bucks Shanghai declineBy Clement TanHONG KONG, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks fell sharply
in thin trade on Tuesday, with short-term investors knocking
down Chinese financial, property and material stocks and aiming
to retrace most of October’s gains after a bout of short
covering fizzled out.Support for falling share prices was lacking, as the level
of short-selling had dropped significantly following the Hang
Seng Index’s 16 percent bounce, as of Monday, from a
2-1/2-year low plumbed on Oct 4.”The problem now is that nobody is willing to buy at current
levels…we rallied quite a bit in the past week, the short
squeeze that sustained that rally is over for now,” said Alex
Wong, Ample Finance Group’s director of asset management.The Hang Seng Index closed down 4.3 percent at
18,076.5 points, holding above a gap that formed when the
benchmark rose significantly on Sept. 11 — between the high on
Sept. 10 at about 17,800 and the low of Sept. 11 at about
18,041.The China Enterprise Index slumped 5.2 percent,
while the Shanghai Composite Index declined 2.3 percent
to finish at 2,383.5 points after data on Tuesday showed China’s
third-quarter growth at the slowest pace in two years.Bucking the broader negative tone on Tuesday was Sinohydro
Group , which had built the Three Gorges Dam and
made its listing debut in Shanghai. Investors piled into the
stock, helping it surge almost 40 percent at one
stage.While market watchers said Sinohydro’s performance bodes
well for future mega-IPOs, they attributed the magnitude of its
gains on the day, which spurred a 30-minute mandatory trading
suspension, to speculative money.GROWTH-SENSITIVE SECTORS HARD HITChinese material, financial and property counters, among the
hardest hit by fears of a sharp slowdown in China’s economy in
the last quarter, led losses on the day in Hong Kong.Such fears were not undercut by fresh China data which
showed that while GDP growth slowed in the third quarter, it
remained above 9 percent. To some market-players, the numbers
were not strong enough to spawn optimism, and not weak enough to
suggest any policy-loosening was imminent. The data prompted
some investors bearish on China to liquidate long positions in
growth-sensitive sectors.Steel producer Citic Pacific Ltd , the top beta
play among Hang Seng Index components, bled 11.8 percent, while
China Overseas Land & Investments Ltd slumped 9.8
percent.Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
lost 6.1 percent, almost halving its bounce up from a trough on
Oct. 4 to a peak on Oct. 13.ICBC, considered the healthiest of the “Big Four” Chinese
banks partly because of its large deposit base, had less than
1.0 percent of its total turnover on Monday shorted.In Shanghai, PetroChina Co Ltd , China Shenhua
Energy Co Ltd and Sinopec Corp were
among the top drags on the benchmark, while Anhui Conch Cement
lost 5.4 percent.
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36 notes
NEW DELHI Oct 18 (Reuters) - India has agreed to grant an
Internet service licence to Qualcomm Inc , Telecoms
Secretary R. Chandrashekhar said on Tuesday, clearing the way
for the U.S. chipmaker to launch broadband services in the
country after its application for the licence was rejected
initially.Qualcomm last year paid about $1 billion for wireless
spectrum it won in a state auction in four of India’s 22
telecoms zones. The company needs to get the so-called Internet
Service Provider’s licence to launch broadband services.The ministry had earlier cited Qualcomm missing the deadline
for applying for the Internet service providers’ licence as one
of the reasons for rejecting the application. The ministry had
also said Qualcomm applied for four separate licences, whereas
it should have applied for just one.Qualcomm was not immediately available for comment. The
company has previously said it fully complied with the
application process and will work with the Indian authorities to
resolve the matter.It last year sold a total 26 percent stake in its India
broadband venture to Indian firms Global Holdings and Tulip
Telecom to comply with Indian rules, which allow a
maximum 74 percent foreign holding in local telecoms companies.Qualcomm, which is pushing for the deployment of LTE
(long-term evolution) broadband technology, has said it is
looking for more operator partners in the Indian venture and
plans to eventually exit the business.Other firms who have wireless broadband spectrum in select
zones include top telecoms firm Bharti Airtel , smaller
carrier Aircel and privately held Augere and Tikona.A unit of Reliance Industries , India’s most
valuable firm, has wireless broadband spectrum in all the 22
zones of the country.None of the broadband spectrum winners have launched
services yet.
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24 notes
Its always good to see a venerable business mag can also have a sense of humor.
Most people know Forbes publishes the ranks of the worldÂs richest people, this year topped by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. But the magazine also does another annual list that will be of much more interest to those of us who love TV, movies and other fun escapes: the Forbes Fictional 15 rankings of fictionÂs richest.
As Forbes points out, ÂGlobal markets are rapidly recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, and so are the fortunes of the fictitious. Topping the list this year is newcomer Carlisle Cullen, the head of the vampire coven in the âTwilightâ novels and movies. Cullen Âhas accumulated a fortune of $34.1 billion. Not surprisingly for a 370-year-old, his gains are attributed to Âlong-term investments.Â
Perhaps the most noteworthy newcomer to the list is the Tooth Fairy, at $3.9 billion. Good for her because, as the magazine points out, she Âhas blown several previous fortunes 50 cents at a time.Â
Some big names also dropped off the list this year. ÂGordon Gekko, the hero of the forthcoming âWall Street: Money Never Sleepsâ, drops off the list after a stint in federal lock-up. Also suffering a fall in fortunes was Jabba the Hutt of âStar Warsâ fame (well, actually he didnÂt suffer a fall in fortune, he just died, which I guess could be interpreted as a fall in fortune).
Of course, these titans of fiction are still a long way from eclipsing the real thing. In the real world of money, Carlos Slim is worth $53.5 billion, narrowly tipping No. 2 Bill Gates, who charted $53 billion and laggard Warren Buffett at $47 billion. Eat that Bruce Wayne.
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