In today’s briefing:
- Korea’s Short Selling Ban to Stay, Likely Until EquiLend-Korean Version Launch
- New Year New NISA Accounts – It’s BIG, But Not so Big
- PICC’s (1339 HK)’s Implied Stub Plumbs New Lows As Interest Rate Cuts Bite
- Quiddity Leaderboard for Hang Seng Index Mar 24: More Room Being Created for IT Names?
Korea’s Short Selling Ban to Stay, Likely Until EquiLend-Korean Version Launch
- Local market information indicates potential collaboration between KRX, FSS, and KSD to create a Korean EquiLend, aiming to centralize the stock lending channel.
- Unprecedented globally, President Yoon aims to centralize short selling. The challenge lies in mandating foreign investors to use Korea’s platform, necessitating a complex legal framework.
- Despite the difficulty, local authorities are compelled to pursue this initiative, raising the likelihood of a Korean EquiLend. Developing strategic plans in response is imperative.
New Year New NISA Accounts – It’s BIG, But Not so Big
- The Kishida administration put out a Doubling Asset-Based Income Plan in 2022. The goal? To get cash savings (corporate/individual) into growth assets and increase asset-based return contribution to income.
- The goal included doubling the number of NISA accounts, and the amount invested in the next five years. On 1 January 2024, NEW NISA account contribution totals were trebled.
- If accounts double, and contribution totals treble, and exemptions are now permanent, investment doubling is a quasi-certainty. The question is how it turns into income-producing assets. That’s MUCH tougher.
PICC’s (1339 HK)’s Implied Stub Plumbs New Lows As Interest Rate Cuts Bite
- Back in October, I wrote in PICC’s (1339 HK) Lifetime Low Implied Stub that People’s Insurance (1339 HK) was trading at an all-time low implied stub. It’s widened further since.
- Over the past 12-months, excluding PICC’s 68.98% stake in PICC Property & Casualty (2328 HK), the market has assigned HK$42.6bn less for PICC’s steady and profitable life/health insurance stub ops.
- What gives? Falling interest rates is one. EV insurance in another. Yet this bifurcation is extreme.
Quiddity Leaderboard for Hang Seng Index Mar 24: More Room Being Created for IT Names?
- In this insight, we take a look at a group of names with reasonably high likelihood of being involved in index changes for the Hang Seng Index in March 2024.
- The index changes for the March 2024 index rebal will be announced on 16th February 2024.
- While the Hang Seng Index selection process is highly subjective, we continue to believe that identifying eligible names and grouping them by conviction level could be a valuable exercise.
💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
Sign Up for Free
The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network
- ✓ Unlimited Research Summaries
- ✓ Personalised Alerts
- ✓ Custom Watchlists
- ✓ Company Data and News
- ✓ Events & Webinars
