In today’s briefing:
- 2025’s Chinese New Year Consumption Tiltering Towards the Positive
- China Property Developers In Distress – Weekly News & Announcements Tracker | Jan 31- Feb 6, 2025
- Japan Strategy Weekly | The Entertainment Boom
- #99 India Insight: OpenAI’s Deep Research, Lenskart Plans $1Bn IPO, Zomato Rebrands
- RBI Eases Repo-Rates: A Look at the Impact on the Indian Economy
- Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy ‒ A year of trials and tribulations
- AUCTUS ON FRIDAY – 02/07/2025
2025’s Chinese New Year Consumption Tiltering Towards the Positive
- 2025’s Chinese New Year (CNY) closed with a bang. Home appliances, mobile phones and general merchandises were robust. Catering saw steady growth and box office hit a record high;
- Domestic travel was vibrant. So was inbound overseas travel. But outbound overseas travel was in the doldrums on several unfavorable incidents involving kidnapping in Thailand and flu in Japan;
- We predict a 65% chance of a housing resurrection post CNY. We observe an improvement in consumer sentiment as life gradually returning to normal.
China Property Developers In Distress – Weekly News & Announcements Tracker | Jan 31- Feb 6, 2025
- This note is a weekly (select weeks on SK) curated selection of Chinese news articles and company announcements focused on developers in distress
- We look for their deals, updates, specific project progress news (‘local signals’), as well as relevant local research commentaries about the market
- We do not verify the underlying data or provide any opinion, we only select and summarize the information; See direct links to the sources
Japan Strategy Weekly | The Entertainment Boom
- Japanese equities fell this week, with the Nikkei losing 2% and Topix down 1.8%.
- Japan’s entertainment stocks have been on a tear over the past six months, and there’s little sign of momentum fading.
- Japan’s economy is heating up, and markets are taking notice. The 10-year bond yield has climbed to 1.29%, the highest in 14 years
#99 India Insight: OpenAI’s Deep Research, Lenskart Plans $1Bn IPO, Zomato Rebrands
- OpenAI’s new AI tool, Deep Research, enables users to quickly gather in-depth research across various sources. It promises to replace hours of manual research with results in just minutes.
- Lenskart is in talks with five investment banks to launch a $1 billion-plus IPO, set for later this month. The eyewear brand, valued at $5 billion.
- Zomato (ZOMATO IN) has rebranded to Eternal Ltd, signalling its expansion beyond food delivery. The new entity will oversee Zomato, Blinkit, Hyperpure, and District
RBI Eases Repo-Rates: A Look at the Impact on the Indian Economy
- RBI has recently lowered its key repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%. This is the first such reduction since May 2020, aiming to revive the economy.
- Nifty 50 index has shown an average absolute return of approximately 38% during four cycles of Interest rates easing in the past 2 decades.
- Positive for banking, real estate, and auto sectors. The Indian economy will likely see higher consumer spending, increased investment, and credit growth, supporting GDP expansion.
Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy ‒ A year of trials and tribulations
- Only Cordiant and Pantheon buck the trend…
- For the remaining 29 quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs), 2024 was a dire year ‒ as was 2023.
- NAV discounts widened appreciably, while some REIFs, in particular, really struggled.
AUCTUS ON FRIDAY – 02/07/2025
- Arrow Exploration (AXL LN/CN)C; Target price of £0.80 per share: Appraisal drilling results at Alberta Llanos unlock full field development with horizontal wells – Following the discovery well, Arrow has drilled two new vertical wells at Alberta Llanos, effectively delineating the field.
- The AB-2 well at the far northern limit of the field encountered multiple hydrocarbon-bearing intervals with good reservoir characteristics but came in structurally lower than anticipated, resulting in sub-economic oil rates from the Carbonera sandstones.
- Additional zones can be completed at a later stage.
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