Asia Weekly

Going in for the kill

As the bloodbath on Wall Street intensified last week, Asian financial institutions were circling for the kill. The scale of the carnage left even seasoned analysts slack-jawed. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley's transformation from investment banks to government-regulated bank holding companies..

Taipans in the News

A blow to South Korea's telecoms industry - The South Korean telecoms industry is "holding its collective breath" over the resignation of Cho Young-joo, CEO of mobile phone operator KT Freetel, following his arrest on bribery charges, writes Kim Tong-hyung in The Korea Times.

chips are down

The DRAM chip sector, one of the most hotly contested corners of the Asian technology industry, is "in the dumps with no prospects to stage a turnaround before the end of 2008," reports DigiTimes (Taiwan). Prices of dynamic random access memory chips, which are mainly used in personal computers, "show no sign of hitting bottom," agrees Yasuhiro Takizawa in the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Benefit for blue chips

South Korean blue chips will be "the biggest beneficiaries" of the country's upgrade to developed market status on the FTSE global index, say the JoongAng Daily's Moon Gwang-lip and Seo Ji-eun. But investors should also remember to diversify their risk before they plunge into the current global bear....“

Looming disaster

In light of the "bloodbath on Wall Street," Filipinos should be prepared to endure the "equivalent of an economic holocaust," says the Manila Standard Today. Many people are simply unaware of how vulnerable the Philippines is to the pending global recession initiated by the turmoil in the US economy.

IPO Watch

Allyes Online, an advertising unit of China's Focus Media, filed a draft proposal for an initial public offering with the US securities regulator.

Thai mobile phone distributor Jay Mart plans to launch an IPO in November.

Sahaviriya Plate Mill, an affiliate of Thai Steel, said it hopes to raise up to $117 million in Bangkok.

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On the money

 It's a "lighthearted guide to exchange rates" that serves as a kind of "fair-value yardstick" for a currency's true value, says The Economist of its Big Mac Index, which tracks purchasing-power parity - in this case, the idea that exchange rates should fluctuate to make the US dollar price of McDonald's iconic hamburger the same in every country.

Shares to buy

Singapore selections The Business Times says Singapore-listed Olam International's new $91 million sugar refining venture in Nigeria is a "positive development" for investors.

September/October Funds

Foreign investors have been shunning the Tokyo stock market in recent months, but the Financial Times notes that Invesco PowerShares has just launched the PowerShares Dynamic Japan Fund.