The Times - UK (2022-01-26)

the times | Wednesday January 26 2022 2GM 45

MarketsBusiness

P

arliamentarians
around the world
have called on
their governments to
block HSBC and other
companies from
investing in entities
identified as being
responsible for
atrocities against
Uighur Muslims
(Louisa Clarence-
Smith writes).
Sixteen British MPs
and peers are among
thirty-five legislators
from more than ten
countries, including
India, Australia and

Canada, that have

urged governments to

draw up a blacklist of

entities perpetrating

atrocities that should

then be barred from

investment.

The campaign comes

after The Sunday Times

reported this month

that HSBC was holding

shares in a subsidiary

of the Xinjiang

Production and

Construction Corps, a

parliamentary and

economic organisation

that the legislators said

operated “vocational

training” centres

where at least a million

Uighurs are believed to

have been detained

and subjected to

abuses.

HSBC purchased

Stanley slashed its target price from

£10.20 to 810p.

After its shares fell by almost 20 per

cent on Monday, THG must have

been hoping for some much-needed

TLC, especially after the ecommerce

group was given a boost by RBC

analysts, who upgraded the stock to

“outperform”. But the City wasn’t

having it, as what was The Hut Group

extended its losing streak to six

sessions, falling a further 1½p, or

1.3 per cent, to a new low of 119¾p.

Elsewhere on Aim, an upbeat

trading update from Sureserve, which

reported a 70 per cent rise in pre-tax

profit for 2021, sent shares in the

social housing group up by 5p, or

5.8 per cent, to 91½p.

Learning Technologies Group, the

e-learning and software outfit, was in

demand after it said that it expected

full-year revenues of no less than

£254 million, up from £152.3 million

the year before. The shares closed up

12p, or 8.1 per cent, at 160½p, valuing

the company at £1.17 billion.

OZAN KOSE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Cheap means cheerful as

JP Morgan advises ‘buy’

Jessica Newman Market report

O

ne of the world’s biggest

investment banks is

advising its clients to buy

more British stocks and

the reason is simple: “The

UK has for some time significantly

lagged other markets and we note is

currently trading exceptionally

cheap,” Mislav Matejka, JP Morgan’s

head of global equity strategy, said in

a 31-page research note. He and his

team are also fans of London because,

in their view, it offers the highest

dividend yield compared with other

markets.

The Wall Street banking

heavyweight upgraded its view of UK

shares to “overweight” in the last

quarter of 2021, having been bearish

on the country since the Brexit vote

in June 2016. It emphasised that its

preferred index was the FTSE 100, the

premier league of London’s listed

companies whose constituents make

about 80 per cent of their revenues

from overseas, compared with the

more domestically focused FTSE 250.

It may be “exceptionally cheap”, but

the London market can be resilient,

too, as it showed yesterday by

continuing to bounce back even

though stocks on Wall Street were on

course for another turbulent session.

The Footsie clawed back 74.31 points,

or 1 per cent, to close on 7,371.46 after

having endured its biggest one-day

decline in nearly two months on

Monday. The FTSE 250 improved,

too, by 193.21 points, or 0.9 per cent,

to 21,645.71.

Banks were in demand after UBS

lifted its target prices on some of

Britain’s largest mortgage lenders.

Standard Chartered rose 24¼p, or

5 per cent, to 512¼p, while HSBC rose

17¼p, or 3.5 per cent, to 509½p and

Barclays added 6¼p, or 3.3 per cent,

to close at 196¾p. NatWest rose 8p, or

3.4 per cent, to 237¾p as UBS tipped

clients to buy the stock.

Abrdn, one of Britain’s biggest asset

managers, was lifted after Credit

Suisse started coverage of its shares

with an “outperform” rating. Analysts

at the Swiss bank said that “for abrdn,

we are optimistic on the outlook for

Interactive Investor and a business

mix shift to higher-margin stickier

assets”. The stock rose 10¼p, or 4.5 per

cent, to 239½p.

Concerns about military conflict

between Ukraine and Russia causing

a disruption to oil supplies pushed oil

futures higher. Brent crude rose

above $87.80 a barrel by late

afternoon yesterday, in turn lifting

shares in BP by 15½p, or 4.3 per cent,

to 379½p, while Shell B shares added

64¼p, or 3.7 per cent, to £18.12.

Harbour Energy rose to the top of

the mid-caps, improving by 30p, or

9.1 per cent, to close at 360p. At the

other end of the table, HomeServe,

the home repairs group, dropped 35p,

or 4.5 per cent, to 741½p after Morgan

$1bn boost for bank staff

banking

B

ank of America

has announced

plans to

distribute special

compensation awards

worth a total of about

$1 billion to the

majority of its staff.

Most will be delivered

in restricted stock

units.

Brian Moynihan,

chief executive, said

the move reflected a

47 per cent increase

in the lender’s share

price last year. “For

this year, the

estimated value of

these awards is

multiple times higher

than the prior cash

awards,” he told staff

in a memo.

Workers at Bank of

America with annual

pay packages of

$500,000 or less will

be eligible for the

awards, according to

the company, and

receive between 65

and 600 restricted

units of stock. The

amount will depend

on their level of

compensation.

It follows an

unprecedentedly busy

— and lucrative —

year for dealmaking,

which generated

billions of dollars in

fees for Wall Street’s

top banks. Firms in

this competitive

sector are also jostling

for talent and have

lined up to increase

the remuneration of

their most valued

employees after a

succession of highly

profitable quarters

during the pandemic.

Bank of America’s

shares rose 2 per cent,

or 89 cents, to close at

$45.43 in New York

last night.

Brian Moynihan, Bank

of America’s chief

executive

Wall Street report

Another day, another recovery as

indices retraced their graphs on

Monday, bouncing back from

intraday lows but this time not quite

escaping the red. The Dow Jones

industrial average closed on 34,297.73,

down 66.77 points, or 0.2 per cent.

Company Change
Harbour Energy Benefits from rising oil prices 9.1%
Capricorn Energy Investors welcome news of £700 million return to shareholders 6.6%
Reach Recovers some losses after being swept up in US technology sell-off 6.5%
Playtech Continues to bounce back after last week’s plunge 6.0%
Herald Investment Trust Begins to rebound after recent weakness 5.6%
Darktrace Continues to fall as global sell-off continues -2.7%
Network International Holdings At six-week low as extends losing steak -3.0%
Auto Trader Drop in confidence in technology-focused stocks -3.6%
Syncona Follow-through disposals after last week’s sell-off -3.9%
HomeServe Morgan Stanley slashes target price -4.5%

The day’s biggest movers

shares in Xinjiang

Tianye, a plastics

manufacturer owned

by XPCC. The UK-

listed bank said it was

holding the shares on

behalf of a client.

Siobhain McDonagh,

the Labour MP and

member of the

Treasury select

committee, said: “The

UK government must

act to stop British

firms from bankrolling

modern slavery.”

A spokesman for

HSBC said: “HSBC has

not invested in

Xinjiang Tianye Co.

Ltd. Many firms

provide custodial

services for non-US

customers. This does

not contravene any

sanctions.”

HSBC faces

‘slavery’

backlash

Exchange rates

Bid Change

Australia $ 1.889 -0.01

Canada $ 1.704

Denmark Kr 8.903 +0.04

Euro ¤ 1.196 +0.01

Hong Kong $ 10.498 +0.02

Hungary 428.882 -0.73

Indonesia 19350.989 +40.21

Israel Shk 4.291 +0.01

Japan Yen 153.650 +0.25

New Zealand $ 2.022

Norway Kr 12.107 -0.04

Poland 5.486 +0.04

Russia 106.901 +0.25

S Africa Rd 20.567 -0.03

Sweden Kr 12.523 +0.02

Switzerland Fr 1.240 +0.01

Turkey Lira 18.151 -0.01

USA $ 1.348

Rates supplied by Morningstar

Dollar rates

Australia 1.3977-1.3978

Canada 1.2613-1.2613

Denmark 6.5891-6.5896

Euro 0.8853-0.8854

Hong Kong 7.7847-7.7850

Japan 113.85-113.85

Malaysia 4.1875-4.1925

Norway 8.9235-8.9328

Singapore 1.3437-1.3447

Sweden 9.2491-9.2548

Switzerland 0.9189-0.9190

Other Sterling

Argentina peso 141.30-141.31

Australia dollar 1.8881-1.8883

Bahrain dinar 0.5054-0.5126

Brazil real 7.3527-7.3568

Euro 1.1959-1.1960

Hong Kong dollar 10.515-10.516

India rupee 100.92-101.03

Indonesia rupiah 19361-19363

Kuwait dinar KD 0.4071-0.4095

Malaysia ringgit 5.6491-5.6558

New Zealand dollar 2.0205-2.0209

Singapore dollar 1.8148-1.8168

S Africa rand 20.584-20.595

U A E dirham 4.9474-4.9476

Money rates %

Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.25 ECB Refi -0.50 US Fed Fd 0.00-0.25

Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.59

Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth 0.130; 3 mth 0.230. Sell: 1 mth 0.050; 3 mth 0.015

1 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth

Interbank Rates 0.3782 0.0000 0.5685 0.8991 0.0000

Eurodollar Deps 0.04-024 0.12-0.32 0.16-0.36 0.34-0.54 0.68-0.88

Mkt Rates for Range Close 1 month 3 month

Copenhagen 8.8544-8.9042 8.8987-8.9037 76ds 233ds

Euro 1.1965-1.1904 1.1960-1.1959 7pr 22pr

Montreal 1.6994-1.7057 1.7037-1.7039 1ds 1pr

New York 1.3437-1.3509 1.3508-1.3509 2ds 6ds

Oslo 12.057-12.165 12.057-12.071 21ds 143pr

Stockholm 12.477-12.544 12.496-12.499 58ds 191ds

Tokyo 153.12-153.88 153.79-153.80 7ds 23ds

Zurich 1.2319-1.2413 1.2413-1.2414 13ds 39ds

Premium = pr Discount = ds

Sterling spot and forward rates

Gold/Precious

London Grain Futures metals (US dollars per ounce)
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)

Mar 215.00 May 228.00 Jul unq
Nov 204.00 Jan unq Volume: 1013

London Metal Exchange
(Official)

Cash 3mth Dec 22

Copper Gde A ($/tonne)
9743.0-9744.0 9705.0-9710.0 9390.0-9400.0

Lead ($/tonne)
2358.0-2359.0 2348.0-2350.0 2232.0-2237.0

Zinc Spec Hi Gde ($/tonne)
3614.0-3615.0 3589.0-3591.0 3157.0-3162.0

Alum Hi Gde ($/tonne)
3063.0-3064.0 3060.0-3061.0 2780.0-2785.0

Nickel ($/tonne)
22515.0-22535.0 22250.0-22275.0 21425.0-21475.0

Tin ($/tonne) 15mth
41650.0-41700.0 41200.0-41300.0 39925.0-39975.0

European money

deposits %

Currency

1mth 3mth 6mth 12mth

Dollar

0.13 0.20 0.29 0.55

Sterling

0.38 0.57 0.90 0.81

Euro

0.10 0.15 0.20 0.50

Data as shown is

for information

purposes only. No offer is made by

Morningstar or this publication

Because of a technical issue, the gold fix

prices are from Monday.

Bullion: Open $1843.38

Close $1851.83-1852.29 High $1852.27

Low $1834.96

AM $1838.25 PM $1831.60

Krugerrand $1833.00-1932.00 (£1356.88-1430.17)

Platinum $1035.00 (£766.16)

Silver $23.88 (£17.68)

Palladium $2203.00 (£1630.78)