Stock indices of the largest countries in the Asia-Pacific region fall on Thursday following the US stock market.
Trading on stock exchanges in Australia on Thursday is not held in connection with the Day of Sorrow for Queen Elizabeth II.
Investors evaluate the results of the September meeting of the US Federal Reserve System (FRS). The American Central Bank raised the interest rate on federal funds (federal funds rate) by 75 basis points, now its range is 3-3.25% per annum. The decision coincided with the forecasts of most economists and analysts and was adopted unanimously by all 12 voting members of the FOMC.
Thus, the Fed raised the base rate by 75 bp. for the third meeting in a row. It is now at its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. At the same time, based on Fed estimates, by the end of 2022 the rate will reach 4.4% per annum.
The Fed, along with many other central banks around the world, has been actively raising interest rates this year in order to slow down economic growth and curb inflation, beating multi-year records. Financial market participants, in turn, are worried that such actions could harm the growth of the global economy and provoke a recession.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan continues to stay away from the global wave of tightening monetary policy, despite increased inflation in the country. The regulator left unchanged the main parameters of monetary policy (MP) on the basis of the two-day meeting that ended on Thursday.
The short-term interest rate on deposits of commercial banks with the Central Bank was left at minus 0.1% per annum, the target yield on ten-year government bonds is near zero, the Japanese Central Bank said in a statement. The Bank of Japan also confirmed that it intends to keep the rate “at the current level or below.”
The value of the Japanese index Nikkei 225 by 8:15 Moscow time decreased by 0.6%.
The drop leader is shares of non-ferrous metal producer Toho Zinc Co. Ltd. (-2.95%), logistics Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (-2.7%) and recruiting Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd. (-2%).
Papers of the software developer Oracle Corp. (SPB: ORCL) Japan fell 5% after the release of its first financial quarter. The company’s net profit decreased by 3.8% on the back of rising costs.
The Chinese Shanghai Composite index fell by 0.2% by 8:20 Moscow time, the Hong Kong Hang Seng lost 1.8%.
Leading decliners on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange include shares of PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd. (-4.8%), IT company Alibaba Group Holding (SPB: BABA) Ltd. (-3.2%), operator of the Hong Kong exchange Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (-3%) and JD.com Inc. (SPB: JD) (-2.9%).
The South Korean index Kospi by 8:25 Moscow time fell by 1%.
Shares of one of the world’s largest manufacturers of chips and consumer electronics Samsung Electronics Co. fell by 1.6%, automaker Hyundai Motor – by 1.8%.
The head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (CFG), Oleksandr Klymenko, decided to cancel the decision to close the so-called “Rotterdam + case” as illegal and unfounded, the SAP press service reports.
It is noted that Klymenko also completely changed the group of prosecutors in this case due to ineffective supervision over compliance with laws during the pre-trial investigation.
“Such decisions were made based on the results of studying the case materials, a thorough study of the findings of prosecutors during the closure of this criminal proceeding, and the results of a meeting with the participation of prosecutors and detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, who carried out the pre-trial investigation,” the report explains.
It is specified that the head of the SAP revealed “numerous inconsistencies in the conclusions and arguments of the prosecutor when closing this case, the incompleteness of the study of the case materials by the prosecutor, the inconsistency of the prosecutor’s conclusions with the actual circumstances of the criminal proceedings.”
“This means that further decisions on this case will be made by the renewed composition of prosecutors in full compliance with the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code,” the SAP stressed.
They recalled that on September 21, 2022, the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court (VAKS) completed consideration of the appeal against the ruling of the investigating judge of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court dated October 13 of the same year to refuse to satisfy the complaint against the decision to close criminal proceedings.
Based on the results of the consideration, the collegium of the court partially canceled the decision of the investigating judge and closed the proceedings on complaints from representatives of Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant JSC and Zaporozhye Ferroalloy Plant JSC against the decision of the SAPO prosecutor to close criminal proceedings dated March 24, 2017.
“The SAP is awaiting the full text of the said court decision. The legal position of the court set forth in the full text of the decision will be taken into account in the further pre-trial investigation and decision-making on the case. At the same time, the illegality and groundlessness of the prosecutor’s decision to close this proceeding does not cause any doubt,” the prosecutor’s office concluded.
The profit of Ukrainian banks in January-August 2022 amounted to UAH 8.4 billion, which is 5.4 times less than in the same period last year (UAH 45.6 billion), the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the profit of Ukrainian banks in August amounted to UAH 5.05 billion, which is 37% less than the profit in July (UAH 8.05 billion).
The regulator noted that the income of banks in August increased by 20.3%, and expenses by 17.9%.
According to the regulator, the income of banks for 8 months of this year increased by 32% against the figure for the same period last year – up to UAH 227.5 billion. Including commission income increased by 2.25 times – up to UAH 130.846 billion.
At the same time, the result from the revaluation and from purchase and sale transactions was positive and amounted to UAH 39.617 billion, while for the same period last year it was negative and amounted to UAH 1 billion.
At the same time, the expenses of the banking system in January-August 2022 increased by 72% compared to this indicator in 2021, to UAH 219 billion, including contributions to reserves, by 12.4 times, to UAH 89.4 billion. At the same time, fee and commission expenses increased by 0.8% to UAH 21.93 billion,
As reported, Ukrainian banks doubled their net profit in 2021 to UAH 77.5 billion compared to UAH 41.3 billion in 2020.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology notes a multiple drop in the share of those wishing to leave for permanent residence in the United States or EU countries in the event of obtaining citizenship of these countries from the fall of 2020.
“In October 2020, KIIS conducted an all-Ukrainian telephone survey, which, among other things, posed the question “And if you were now granted US or EU citizenship without conditions, would you go to these countries for permanent residence?” At that time, 28% of all adults of Ukrainians were ready to go abroad.In September 2022, we asked this question again… 91% became more of those who would not want to leave,” the press release on the results of the study says.
At the same time, KIIS notes that currently about 10% of adult Ukrainians are now abroad as refugees. “However, even if half of them would answer yes to this question (recent surveys of Ukrainian refugees show that in fact the majority still want to return home, that is, the answers “yes” would most likely be less than half), then the decline in emigration sentiment would also be significant, from 28% to around 13%.
According to the results of the study, in all regions of Ukraine, the absolute majority of the population (90-92%) would not want to travel abroad.
In terms of age, younger respondents are more willing to emigrate, but in fact, among all ages, the vast majority (at least 84%) would not want to go to live in the US/EU. “In 2020, almost half (46%) of young people under 30 would like to leave, now it is 13%,” the KIIS stressed.
The survey was conducted on September 7-13 by the method of telephone interviews using a computer (CATI) among 2,000 respondents from all regions of Ukraine, controlled before February 24, and did not cover citizens who left abroad. The statistical sampling error under normal circumstances (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50% and 1.1% for indicators close to 5%. In war conditions, a certain systematic deviation is added to the error, but the results obtained still retain high representativeness, the KIIS notes.
Internal and external debt of Ukraine in 2009-2022
SSC of Ukraine
It is necessary to achieve an extension of the Istanbul food deal, as this will help feed the world, US President Joe Biden said during a speech at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
“I am grateful for the work of the UN, including the leadership of Secretary General António Guterres, thanks to which it was possible to create a mechanism that allows exporting grain from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea … We need to ensure that it is extended,” Biden said during of his speech, noting “faith in the need to feed the world”.
The US President added that Russia is trying to blame the food crisis on the sanctions that Western countries have imposed against it. However, according to him, “our sanctions regimes quite clearly allow Russia to export food and fertilizers.”
Biden also said the US will donate $2.9 billion in humanitarian aid and food security assistance this year.
