BLBG: Emerging-Market Stocks, Bonds Gain on China Bets, Commodities
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Emerging-market stocks, bonds and currencies gained as speculation increased that China will boost its equity market and rising commodities lifted the earnings prospects for raw-materials exporters.
The Shanghai Composite Index, the worst-performing equity index worldwide in the past month, jumped 4.8 percent after newspapers highlighted comments by a China Securities Regulatory Commission official that regulators will promote a “stable and healthy” market. Russian stocks rose, while the ruble strengthened the most against the dollar among developing-nation currencies as commodities prices rallied.
“It’s a good time for bargain hunting,” Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities Ltd., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The Chinese market “will stabilize at this level,” he said.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 1.1 percent to 839.77 at 10:25 a.m. in New York. Today’s surge in Chinese stocks, the biggest in six months, eased concern the government will slow a recovery in the world’s third-largest economy by restricting credit. Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, further bolstered investors’ confidence with a higher forecast for China’s consumption of the metal this year.
Nineteen of the 25 equity benchmark indexes in emerging markets that were open for trading climbed today. Brazil’s Bovespa added 0.1 percent as shares of state-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA rose, while Mexico’s Bolsa added 0.4 percent.
The spread between yields on developing-nation debt and U.S. Treasuries narrowed by six basis points, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI+ Index.
Shanghai Rally
The Shanghai Composite has slumped 18 percent in the past month as banks reined in lending to avert asset bubbles and policy makers advised industries from steel to cement to curb overcapacity. The measure had rallied 103 percent from a November low on prospects a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package and record bank lending would revive economic growth.
Citic Securities Co., China’s largest brokerage, jumped 6.6 percent today and Poly Real Estate Group Co. surged 8.2 percent after the comments from CSRC Vice Chairman Liu Xinhua at a forum in Beijing were featured on the front pages of the China Securities Journal and the Shanghai Securities News, the nation’s biggest financial newspapers.
Alcoa Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld said in an interview that China’s consumption of aluminum may rise 4 percent this year, compared with Alcoa’s previous prediction of zero growth.
Russia’s Micex index of ruble-denominated shares added 2.1 percent before trading was halted because of a technical fault. The ruble rose 0.6 percent against the dollar.
42% Rally
Russia’s RTS Index of dollar-denominated shares, up 2.1 percent today, may gain 42 percent in the next 16 months if the price of oil trades between $60 a barrel and $80 a barrel, Troika Dialog said in a report. Oil is Russia’s biggest export earner.
To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Patterson in London at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net; Fabio Alves in New York at falves3@bloomberg.net