* China Enterprises index HSCE rises 1.60%

Feb 17 (Reuters) – Hong Kong stocks ended higher on Wednesday, marking the seventh straight session of gains and extending a bull run ahead of the reopening of mainland markets after the Lunar New Year break, with sentiment lifted by optimism over global economic recovery.

** The Hang Seng index rose 1.10% to 31,084.94, the highest close since June 2018, while the China Enterprises Index increased 1.60% to 12,228.63.

** The Hang Seng Tech Index surged 2.34% and the Hang Seng sub-index tracking information technology firms climbed 1.88%.

** Brokers said an improving pandemic situation and expectations the bull run will continue when China markets reopen helped lift investor sentiment.

** China’s mainland markets are scheduled to reopen on Feb. 18.

** MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked up 0.59%, while Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.58%.

** The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Finance Index surged 1.37%, while Hang Seng sub-index tracking property firms slid 0.41%.

** The top gainer in the Hang Seng Index was AAC Technologies, which was up 7.11%, while the biggest percentage loser was Mengniu Dairy, which dropped 2.42%.

** The biggest gainer in Hang Seng Tech Index was Tongcheng-Elong Holdings, which soared 15.02%, while the top percentage loser was Hua Hong Semiconductor, down 6.52%. (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Reuters

Designed to contribute to the 2023 vision, which is a set of goals to be reached by the Republic of Turkey’s centennial in 2023, these projects represent the culmination of the giant leap taken in the last decade towards a well-developed and prosperous Turkey that seeks to count itself among the world’s top 10 economies.

Exceeding USD 100 billion in total worth, the highways, bridges, airports, power plants and other mega projects remain on schedule. In addition to infrastructure related projects, rapid progress is also being made in the development of domestically designed and produced automobiles and aircraft.

Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant

Rising in Mersin on the Mediterranean coast, the construction of the hydraulic facilities of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant began in April, 2015. Scheduled to go online in 2020, the USD 22 billion project is being built by the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom utilizing the latest technologies and safety features.

North Marmara Highway – Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge

On schedule to be completed by the end of 2015, the North Marmara Highway Project will boast the world’s widest and longest combined road and rail bridge, the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge. The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge will become the third bridge to span the Bosphorus strait, adding yet another link between Europe and Asia.

The USD 4.5 billion highway will link the Marmara Sea ports of Tekirdag with the major industrial center of Sakarya, considerably shortening the route between the two while allowing the freight transportation to bypass Istanbul’s busy city center. The highway lies adjacent to Istanbul’s third airport, which is under construction in the northwestern section of Istanbul’s European side.

Istanbul’s Third Airport

Istanbul’s third airport, set to be one of the largest in the world in terms of passenger capacity, is under construction in the Arnavutkoy district of Istanbul. Tendered to a consortium of five Turkish companies, Cengiz-Kolin-Limak-Mapa-Kalyon, for EUR 22 billion in May, 2013, the airport project will be realized through the built-operate-transfer method and is currently expected to cost an additional EUR 10 billion to complete.

Once complete, Istanbul’s third airport will relieve the heavily congested Ataturk Airport, becoming both the main hub of Turkish Airlines (THY) and a new layover location for a multitude of airline companies given its prime location between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Canal Istanbul

Canal Istanbul is an artificial sea-level waterway that will be built parallel to the Bosphorus and will connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. At a planned 47 kilometers in length and 150 meters in width, Canal Istanbul will provide relief to shipping traffic, particularly oil tanker traffic, passing through the Bosphorus. The canal has a designed capacity of 160 vessels a day and is scheduled to be completed by 2023 at a cost of USD 15 billion.

Trans-Anatolian Pipeline Project (TANAP) and the Turkish Stream

Designed to carry natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to Turkey and beyond, the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline’s (TANAP) construction is progressing rapidly. The first flow of gas through the USD 12 billion pipeline project is expected to start by 2018.

TANAP will connect to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on the Turkish-Greek border and is expected to have an annual throughput of 31 billion cubic meters by 2026.

Eurasia Tunnel and Marmaray

The Eurasia Tunnel is the key component of a motorway that will allow drivers to cut the travel time from Kazlicesme on the European side to Goztepe on the Asian side of Istanbul to 15 minutes. To be opened later this year, this two-deck tunnel will pass under the Bosphorus and will have a capacity of 120,000 vehicles per day.

Istanbul Finance Center

Ground has been broken for the project that will turn Turkey’s megacity into an international finance center. The city of 15 million inhabitants is already a major center of trade and business and is perfectly suited to assume the role of an international finance hub with its well-regulated markets, a vibrant economy, solid banking system, skilled labor force and advantageous geographical location.

Aiming to provide services in all segments of the finance sector, the integrated complex on the Asian side of Istanbul will span over 2,500,000 square meters of land. It will comprise office space, residences, a conference hall, a shopping mall and a hotel.

On schedule to be completed by 2018, Istanbul Finance Center will also house the head offices of the country’s governing bodies of financial markets, state-owned banks, and related businesses.

http://www.projelansman.com/

China is ready to seize any business opportunities in Russia resulting from Moscow’s diplomatic showdown with Europe over Ukraine, Beijing’s ambassador to Berlin said this week. While in Russia, Li will sign more than 30 agreements on finance, energy and high-speed rail cooperation, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, without providing details.

China and Russia have close economic and diplomatic links, and China has been unwilling to get involved in the Ukraine crisis aside from calling for talks and a peaceful resolution. While in Germany in March, President Xi Jinping said that China would not take sides with the West or Russia over Ukraine, disappointing any hopes Beijing might add its weight to international pressure on Moscow for annexing Crimea. Li will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and sign a series of agreements, Xinhua said without elaborating.

Human rights could also be on the agenda, an issue invariably raised by German politicians in meetings with their Chinese counterparts. In a video podcast, Merkel said she hoped Hong Kong police react to the protests in a “level-headed way.”

Reuters

Almost 20 financial services startups secured funding in September alone, according to tech investment tracking site ITJuzi. Most of them were either P2P lending or investment startups. Remember that P2P lending isn’t just for the borrowers – it can be a good investment for the savvy amateur lender. Wealth management and investment apps are of particular interest because of what’s going on in China’s stock exchanges. A recently revealed change of rules will, for the first time, allow Chinese investors to buy shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. In addition, overseas investors will be able to trade on the Shanghai stock exchange.

The program is currently in testing and could go live as soon as this month. As a result, several wealth management and investment apps are eyeing new opportunities to either act as middlemen between users and brokers, or in some cases even become brokers themselves. Users in China will soon be able to trade Hong Kong stocks on their smartphones, and the app makers stand to gain from commissions. Investors have been quick to seize the opportunity, dumping fresh cash on several such startups. Hong Kong-based 8 Securities received a US$9 million series B round from Velocity Capital and Leitmotiv Private Equity, Snowball received a US$40 million series C round from Renren, and Tongbanjie received nearly US$50 million in series B funding from Legend Capital. Qianshengqian, Road Show China, and Zhongtou 8 have all secured series A rounds.

Prior to the rule change, some of these startups mainly focused on creating a social atmosphere for investors, providing information, and setting up mock exchanges. Actual investing was limited to mutual funds and domestic exchanges, which are much less transparent and less attractive to non-professional investors compared to international exchanges like Hong Kong’s. Allowing international investors into China and Chinese investors into the rest of the world presents a huge opportunity for laymen investors and the startups that serve them.

by Paul Bischoff

TechInAsia

ReutersTV

Money managers in Japan made net purchases of 54.3 billion yen ($561 million) after selling the South Pacific nation’s government debt in each of the previous 10 months, the Tokyo-based Ministry of Finance said today. Overall, they offloaded Aussie dollar-denominated securities worth 247 billion yen, the smallest sales in three months. U.S. Treasury sales moderated to 1.1 trillion yen from 3 trillion yen in May.

While Japan’s fund managers have sold U.S. dollar and Aussie-denominated securities in each of the first six months of the year, there are signs that trend may be changing. Weekly data, also released today, showed investors made net purchases of offshore debt for a fifth week in the period ended Aug. 2.

“One of the reasons they may might focus on Australiangovernment bonds over others would be for their extra liquidity,” said Damien McColough, head of fixed-income research atWestpac Banking Corp. (WBC) in Sydney. “At the end of the day, the Japanese are still very risk-averse. If they can get a good high yield for the benchmark bond that satisfies Mrs. Watanabe, they’ll do it.”

Individual Japanese investors are sometimes referred to as “Mrs. Watanabe,” a reference to housewifes who control family budgets.

Australia’s 10-year bond yield fell two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 3.67 percent today and touched 4.04 percent on June 24, the most since April 5, 2012.

Kokusai Bearish

Kokusai Asset Management Co., which runs Asia’s biggest bond fund, said last month it halved its Australian holdings this year as a slowing economy makes the nation’s assets less attractive than those of North America and Europe. Masataka Horii, who runs the Global Sovereign Open Fund said July 18 that he cut Aussie investments to 10 percent from as much as 20 percent late last year.

Investors have sold 516 billion yen of Australian government debt and 1.9 trillion of securities denominated in the nation’s currency this year. They offloaded 9.2 trillion yen of U.S. Treasuries and 9.5 trillion yen of dollar bonds, the data show.

Japan bought a net 689.9 billion yen of foreign debt in the five days ended Aug. 2, separate data today showed.

Australia’s sovereign bonds have risen 0.3 percent in August and 0.7 percent this year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch data show. U.S. Treasuries are little changed this month and down 2.7 percent since Dec. 31.

The Aussie dollar rose 0.5 percent to 87.09 yen as of 12:43 p.m. in Sydney, paring its decline this year to 3.5 percent.

Bloomberg

President Barack Obama’s executive order continues a gradual lifting of sanctions since the military government that had run the country also known as Burma for five decades stepped aside in 2011.

“The administration is maintaining restrictions on specific activities and actors that contribute to human rights abuses or undermine Burma’s democratic reform process,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in a statement.

The U.S. ban on imports of Myanmar jade and rubies remains in place because of concerns that the mining of those gems benefits military figures and shadowy businessmen and fuels corruption and human rights abuses in ethnic minority regions.

Without Wednesday’s adjustment, the ban on rubies, jade and jewelry that contains them would have lapsed with the expiry on July 28 of a general import ban under legislation known as the Burma Freedom and Democracy Act.

Wednesday’s move also paves the way for the lifting of prohibitions on U.S. dealings with some people or entities in Myanmar on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) blacklist maintained by the Treasury Department.

Lifting the ban on U.S. interactions with such people or companies still requires a license from Treasury, a second U.S. official said. Myanmar‘s list includes military figures accused of rights abuses and corruption under the former ruling junta.

Human rights activists and ethnic minority groups remain wary about the government of President Thein Sein, a former general now heading a quasi-civilian government in Myanmar, and they lobbied vigorously to keep some sanctions in place.

“We are strongly opposed to removing anyone from the SDN list who has not demonstrated they have cut ties with the Burmese military, military-owned businesses and returned confiscated land,” said Jennifer Quigley, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a Washington advocacy group.

In a letter to Obama last month, 30 groups from Kachin state, where much of the jade is mined, warned that an easing of the ban would worsen a conflict over resources that has raged since a ceasefire broke down in 2011.

“The prospect of huge profits to be made could encourage increased militarization and even fresh conflict as government forces seek to secure control of areas where mines are or where deposits may be,” said the groups from Kachin, a state that borders China.

World Bulletin

According to Morgunblaðið, the estimated price is ISK 115 billion (USD 970 million, EUR 726 million).

After the 2008 banking collapse, the Icelandic government transferred domestic accounts from Glitnir to state-created lender Íslandsbanki.

ZR

Iceland Review