Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 3: Let's look at some of the stocks on the move
Speaker 3: today here in Europe. I'm Caroline Hepget. I'm joined bar
Speaker 3: Blomberger portaclomb La. Good morning, Gary. Let's start with hst BC.
Speaker 3: They're going big on Hong Kong. What about the investor
Speaker 3: reaction though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they actually down quite a bit this morning after
Speaker 1: announcing the plans to privatize Hanksang Bank, which is one
Speaker 1: of its Hong Kong subsidiaries that has been in quite
Speaker 1: a troubled spot lately. So HSBC owns about sixty three
Speaker 1: percent of that bank and we'll spend around fourteen billion
Speaker 1: dollars buying the shares it doesn't already hold. The problem
Speaker 1: that investors seem to have with this is that to
Speaker 1: keep its capital ratio within range, HSBC said it will
Speaker 1: it will have to refrain from buybacks for the next
Speaker 1: three quarters to investors, and investors tend to want those
Speaker 1: buyo backs, So that explains at the shares being down
Speaker 1: this morning. From a strategic perspective, though, this does represent
Speaker 1: quite a big bet on Hong Kong and the time
Speaker 1: when there's lots of happening there. At the moment, dealmaking
Speaker 1: is on the up again, it's rising again. But then
Speaker 1: at the same time the banking sector is under a
Speaker 1: lot of stress from a real estate slam that has
Speaker 1: left a lot of banks with bad, really bad commercial
Speaker 1: real estate debt. The CEO, George Lderry, said that the
Speaker 1: deal had nothing to do with the bad debt situation
Speaker 1: and that it was very much an investment for growth.
Speaker 1: But for now inversas aren't too keen on what that
Speaker 1: means for their shareholder returns.
Speaker 3: Of course, yeah, absolutely, HSBC shares also trading in Hong Kong.
Speaker 3: We are lower overnight.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: State agents normally love a client with a budget, but
Speaker 3: the rumors around Rachel Reeves's upcoming budget is actually turning
Speaker 3: things a bit more at sour in the property market.
Speaker 3: Just to explain why.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so we have some of the key US
Speaker 1: UK Sorry a house builder names this morning down so
Speaker 1: Taylor wimpy person about red Row, and that is because
Speaker 1: there's new data showing that there's even more pressure on
Speaker 1: the UK housing market at the moment. So we've had
Speaker 1: a new research that shows that ukstate agents have turned
Speaker 1: pessimistic for the first time in two years, and that
Speaker 1: is due to those fears of tax rises and wider
Speaker 1: economic concerns. So a lot of that gloomy feeling can
Speaker 1: be attributed to those rising worries that there will be
Speaker 1: more tax increases in the budget in November as Chancellor
Speaker 1: of ragel Reeves really tries to plug that fiscal hole,
Speaker 1: and those tax rises will probably weigh even more on
Speaker 1: a housing market that's already not in the best spot.
Speaker 1: It's already had to deal with stamp duty increases in
Speaker 1: April and just wider economic concerns. So some agents have
Speaker 1: said that the usual pickup post summer has not materialized
Speaker 1: yet because buyers are actually delaying decisions until we get
Speaker 1: that budget. So we'll have to keep an eye on that.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, it seems like the house building
Speaker 1: sector doesn't have the best outlook so far. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you got to think that the stamp duty tax
Speaker 3: on property purchases goes from zero if you're buying the
Speaker 3: least expenses up to one hundred and twenty five thousand pounds,
Speaker 3: but then if you're over one point five million, it
Speaker 3: gets up to twelve percent twelve percent tax on the
Speaker 3: price the value of that property that has to be paid,
Speaker 3: so it is a significant tax. Lloyd's also has responded
Speaker 3: to the FCA's long running motor finance saga, just briefly
Speaker 3: on their share price.
Speaker 1: Yeah well, it put out as stament today is saying
Speaker 1: they will have to set aside additional provision to compensate
Speaker 1: customers who have missed all those carloons. It did not
Speaker 1: give a figure, but it said the provision might be
Speaker 1: materials already set aside one point fifteen billion pounds and
Speaker 1: probably have to set aside another five hundred million, and
Speaker 1: that is driving down the sheds.
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