Distressed sales made up more than a fifth of Chinese commercial real estate deals in 2023, underscoring the severity of the property crisis in Asia's largest economy. Overall sales of offices, factories, stores, hotels, apartments, senior housing and other commercial properties in China totaled $38.6 billion last year, down from $60.3 billion as recently as 2021, according to MSCI Real Assets. Distressed sales, those involving properties put into receivership, accounted for more than 20% of commercial real estate deals in 2023, the highest proportion since MSCI began tracking such data in 2019. Distressed deals accounted for 11% of transactions in 2022 and 9% in 2019. Benjamin Chow, head of real estate research in Asia for MSCI, said the 20% figure "is quite a significant proportion," noting that some non-distressed deals were made by stressed developers in need of liquidity. Nearly 50% of the distressed deals in 2023 were in the industrial sector. Distressed deals also have made up a high proportion of Chinese commercial real estate sales this year. Of 9.8 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in total transactions, 3 billion yuan came from distressed sales in the first two months, according to MSCI. Most of the sales were smaller deals of $50 million and under. Some investors have been encouraged by the growing percentage of distressed deals, reckoning that such activity could be a sign the commercial real estate market is beginning to bottom out. Developers who generate cash through disposals could improve their capital structure and their creditworthiness, boosting the confidence of fixed-income investors, said Jenny Zeng, chief investment officer for Asia fixed income at Allianz Global Investors. Government-backed entities and insurers were active buyers of Chinese commercial real estate last year. In the first quarter of 2023, a science park in Tianjin owned by defaulted developer Wanhe Technology was sold for 2.8 billion yuan to Tianjin Hongda Technology Innovation Industry Development, a government-owned entity. The biggest distressed commercial property deal by value last year was the sale of the Sheraton Shanghai Hongkou Hotel for 1.6 billion yuan to Jinfeng Group, a cement producer based in Jiangsu province, adjacent to Shanghai.

Retailers are selling onions at as high as Tk 200 a kilogramme in and outside of Dhaka, compared with Tk 130 on Thursday (Dec 7) in a shock development for consumers reeling under the higher cost of living. The prices of onions have increased by Tk 50 to Tk 60 per kg in Khulna as elsewhere in Bangladesh shortly after India banned its export till March 31 next year. The prices jumped in the wake of India's extension of the onion export ban on Friday. The neighbouring country India extended the ban until March, 2024 – three weeks before the current phase of restriction expired on December 31 – in order to increase the supply in the domestic market and control the price of the vegetable. Though wholesalers and retailers in Bangladesh are blaming India's ban extension for the sudden increase, market observers questioned the spike since the embargo was not new. Nahidul Islam, an onion trader, said the price of imported onion was higher as the importers imported onion at high price.  However, the recent announcement of India restricting export also made the onion market unstable. "There is no reason for the onion price to almost double overnight."    But retailers were selling the homegrown variety of onion at Tk 204 a kg at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka today (Dec 9), compared with Tk 130 per kg on Thursday. Prices of Indian onion rose to Tk 110 from Tk 50 to Tk 60 per kg. "Besides, there is not enough supply as per demand in the local market." Mohammad Abdul Mazed, general secretary of the Shyambazar Onion Wholesalers Association, said that India's export ban has had a big impact on the country's market. Rains in the past few days have also affected the prices. "Supply crunch is another reason for the price hike." The price has rocketed not just in Dhaka but also in other parts of the country.  

As the country witnessed a sharp rising of COVID-19 cases due to highly transmissible variant Omicron since mid- January, the Cabinet Division today (Thursday) issued fresh restrictions coinciding already issued restrictions to combat the outbreak of the deadly virus. The restrictions will remain effective from February 7 to February 21, a notification issued by the Cabinet Division. The new restrictions are as follows: 1. The government has banned all religious, political, social and state programmes at open and indoor places with participation of more than 100 people. Participants must obtain vaccination certificates/ RT-PCR Covid-19 test reports performed within 24 hours. 2. In-person classes of all schools and colleges and equivalent educational institutions will remain suspended, it added The government issued five point restrictions on January 21 revising earlier 11-ponit restrictions, which were imposed January 10 as part of precautionary measures to curb the lethal virus. The fresh wave, however, is reported from across the globe following the emergence of the Omicron variant of the virus from South Africa on November 25, 2021 and was first detected in Bangladesh on December 11. According to World Health Organization (WHO) the COVID-19 situation could be considered to be under control if the infection rate remains within 5 percent for a straight four-week period. Under the WHO standard Bangladesh remained well below the danger line for over three months but authorities issued a fresh alert on November 27, 2021 for Bangladesh after the outbreak of the highly contagious new variant. WHO has declared the omicron as a "variant of concern". Since late January, 2022, COVID-19 positive cases continued to exceed 10,000- mark with ranging more than 25 to over 33 percent positivity rate. On January 28, Bangladesh posted highest COVID-19 positivity rate in a single day since the pandemic began on March 8, 2020 as it reported 33.37 percent positive cases from 46,268 samples test. . The highest infection rate in Bangladesh was 32.55 on July 24, 2021, the DGHS added. On February 2, 2022, Bangladesh reported 12,193 Covid-19 cases while the coronavirus claimed overnight 36 lives. Source: BSS AH

Sonam Srivastava used to create trading algorithms for high-frequency securities traders. But when the U.S. advisory she worked for scrapped plans to launch in India, she decided to start her own advisory business in Mumbai. In 2019, she began offering stock portfolio recommendations on a site called Smallcase, which executes trades on investors' behalf.   Srivastava's recommendations became popular among retail investors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with a "multifactor" strategy based on quantitative research, she has added new themes such as "momentum," which aims to take advantage of a bull market, and another focused on small-cap stocks.   Today, about 6,500 customers have invested nearly 1 billion rupees ($13 million) through Smallcase, Srivastava said in an interview. Most of her clients are "aggressive millennial investors aged 25 to 40, predominantly male, and come from the tier-one and tier-two cities," she added.   Srivastava and Smallcase are part of a major shift in India's wealth management industry. Retail investors, once a relatively small force, compared with foreign and domestic institutions, have grown rapidly since the start of the pandemic, helping drive stock prices to record highs. Economists at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India said the share of individual investors on the NSE by turnover rose from 33% in the 2016 fiscal year to 45% in fiscal 2021.   The number of individual demat accounts, which keep an electronic record of securities that investors are required to have to trade stocks, rose from 39.5 million in January 2020 to 77.2 million in November 2021. For all of 2019, the number of new accounts created totaled just 4.5 million. The trading boom has been fueled by a string of large initial public offerings in India's technology sector, such as food delivery company Zomato, and One97 Communications, owner of mobile payments app Paytm. Economists also attribute the growth in stock trading to a shift to high-yield investments amid falling interest rates.   Among those betting on the Indian stock market is Debnarayan Banerjee, a 36 year-old information technology professional at a U.S.-headquartered multinational. Banerjee, who lives in Bangalaru, had been parking money in mutual funds for about five years when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020. His investments were intended to create a nest egg for his toddler's education as well as his retirement. He was also paying monthly installments for an apartment and a car he bought right before the pandemic struck.   Yet when India's stock market plunged in early 2020, Banerjee more than doubled his investments instead of cutting back. "Investing in stocks or mutual funds is a long-term play," says Banerjee. "It was an opportunity to buy more in the dip."   Now competition among startups to capture business from tech-savvy millennial investors is heating up. Venture capital firms have poured money into online brokerage startups like Groww and Upstox, both of which were reportedly valued at more than $3 billion in fundraising rounds in 2021. Zerodha, considered larger than those two competitors, with 7.5 million active users, has not raised capital during the pandemic.   Smallcase is an online marketplace that offers portfolios of stocks and exchange traded funds by licensed investment advisers. The company hopes to meet demand among investors who want to build a diverse portfolio of stocks but do not want to passively invest in mutual funds.   "The challenge in India has been that there would only be two ways for people to invest: Either they invest into a mutual fund, or they start picking their own stocks and build their own portfolios," said Vasanth Kamath, Smallcase's founder and CEO. "Smallcase is a great gateway in between because it gives you a portfolio approach to investing into equities, but the experience is also very simple."   Founded in 2015, Smallcase had 500,000 customers in January 2020, but that number jumped to 4 million during the pandemic, according to Kamath. The company held a $40 million funding round in August with a group of investors that included Amazon. But competition is only intensifying. WealthDesk, a portfolio investment startup founded in 2016, began offering products on Paytm's stock trading app in September.   Kamath said he is looking to expand Smallcase's offerings into new categories, such as bonds, and potentially cryptocurrency, if the regulatory environment becomes clearer.     India's benchmark Sensex stock index dropped 34% between January and March 2020, but has since risen by about 110%. Some analysts have warned that the dramatic influx of new retail investors means valuations are overheating. After reaching an all-time high in October, the Sensex has declined by about 7%. The increase in the number of new demat accounts hit a peak of 3.58 million in October and fell slightly in November.   "As active retail participants increased substantially, the overall market delivered a positive return of over 15% despite foreign investor outflows of more than 800 billion rupees in 2021," said Mitul Shah, head of research at Reliance Securities. "The recent correction certainly makes investors start thinking about fundamentals, the economy and valuations. The stock market is already trading at a 10% to 15% premium to its historical average valuation of 17 times [the] one-year forward price-to-earning ratio, which creates some discomfort on the valuation front."   Whether investors will stay after a market downturn "is something that all the entire industry is obviously thinking about, and we have no right answer," Kamath said. "But I think there is a strong undercurrent of something changing fundamentally in how people think about asset allocation." Source: NIKKEL ASIA

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (Thursday) called upon the countrymen to help the government in containing the Covid-19 onslaught by maintaining health guidelines such as wearing masks, avoiding mass gatherings and refraining from going outside unnecessarily in view of the sudden surge in the coronavirus infections. “We have to bring the situation under control as we did earlier immediately after the coronavirus breakout. We are trying to bring the virus under control. But, assistance from the people is necessary to contain it,” she told the parliament while speaking on a condolence motion on incumbent lawmaker from Sylhet-3 constituency Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury, who died recently. The Leader of the House said that a sudden surge in the coronavirus infection rate has been seen in Bangladesh and elsewhere across the world, adding, “The coronavirus (infection) has increased, particularly on March 29, 30 and 31, as high as couldn’t be imagined.” She said that the country is witnessing the sudden surge in the Covid-19 infection as the people are ignoring the health guidelines since vaccination against the virus started as they are thinking that nothing would happen to them. “I repeatedly told people to wear masks and follow the health guidelines even after taking the jabs against coronavirus. But, maintaining the health protocol has been stopped,” she continued. The Prime Minister reiterated her call to the countrymen to put masks on faces which she described as the most important thing and follow other health guidelines to remain protected from the lethal virus. She said it has been estimated that the people attending marriage ceremonies and going to tourist places for outing mainly contributed to the sudden surge in the Covid-19 infection rate. The Prime Minister called upon all to avoid mass gatherings and stop going out home unnecessarily and arrange marriage ceremonies on a limited scale following the health guidelines. “After returning home from offices or other places, take steam of hot water by covering heads with a piece of cloth which can work effectively against the Covid-19,” she suggested. She also suggested taking mustard oil in the nose before leaving the house, saying that she has been using it since the Covid-19 onset. The Prime Minister said that her government has already issued some directives to effectively fight the coronavirus onslaught. She stressed the need for making people aware about maintaining the directives to check the sudden surge of the Covid-19 and asked all not to mix with people unnecessarily. Taking part in the discussion on a condolence motion expressing profound shock at the death of a sitting member of parliament, Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury, and some noted personalities, including HT Imam, Sheikh Hasina, also the Leader of the House, expressed found shock and sorrow at their deaths and conveyed profound sympathy to the bereaved families. She described both Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury and her political adviser HT Imam as politically conscious persons and recalled their contributions to nation building activities. On Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury, she said that he was elected lawmaker in every national election with a huge margin from his constituency as he was keen to work for the people, adding, “Sylhet has been affected politically at his demise.” About HT Imam, the premier said that he was a cabinet secretary since the emergence of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in 1975 and was a politically conscious person. She said that HT Imam has written two books on the measures taken by then governments at the request of mine. The Prime Minister also recalled the contribution of former state minister Mohammad Aman Ullah (four-time MP from Mymensingh-11), Monsur Ahmed (two-time MP from Satkhira-4) and Abdul Majid Mandal (MP in 10th Parliament from Siranganj-5). She said Monsur Ahmed, who was president of Satkhira District Unit Awami League, was brutally tortured by the government of Ziaur Rahman. Regarding Barrister Moudud Ahmed (six-time MP from Noakhali-5 and Bogura-7), the premier said that Moudud had talent, if it was used for the welfare of the people, it could have been better. She also said that Moudud had never been appointed as a lawyer in the Agartola Conspiracy Case though he (Moudud) had claimed so. On the death of Bengali daily Janakantha editor Mohammad Atikullah Khan Masud, the Prime Minister said, “It will be injustice to say nothing about Atikullah Khan Masud.” She said that Atikullah Khan Masud had, at his own initiative, taken a brave role in collecting information regarding inhuman tortures of Awami League leaders and workers by the BNP after it assumed office through the 2001 farcical election though many newspapers dared not to do it at that time. “It’s a matter of regret that the journalist community has lost a brave person and a good warrior at the demise of Atikullah Khan Masud,” she opined. On death of chairman of Sikder Group of Industries Zainul Haque Sikder, also father of Parveen Haque Sikder, an Awami League lawmaker from women reserved seat, the premier said that he was not only a freedom fighter but also a person who gave all sorts of supports to the pro-liberation people. The parliament unanimously adopted a condolence motion this morning. Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury moved the condolence motion in the House at the beginning of the 12th session of the 11th Parliament. As per the tradition, the day’s business of parliament was adjourned after the adaptation of the condolence over the death of sitting Awami League MP Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury, who was elected from Sylhet-3 constituency, in order to pay respect to him. A one-minute silence was observed and a munajat was offered seeking eternal peace of the departed soul. Deputy Speaker Md Fazle Rabbi Miah conducted the munajat. Before the condolence motion was passed, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan (Panchagarh-2), Opposition chief whip Mashiur Rahman Ranga (Rangpur-1), Awami League MPs Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim (Gopalganj-2), Muhammad Faruk Khan (Gopalganj-1), Nurul Islam Nahid (Sylhet-6), Md Abdus Shahid (Maulvibazar-4), Nesar Ahmed (Maulvibazar-3) and Enamul Haque (Rajshahi-4), Jatiya Party MP Pir Fazlur Rahman (Sunamganj-4) and BNP MP Md Harunur Rashid (Chapainawabganj-3) also took part in the discussion. Source: BSS AH

Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases in Europe and the United States, the caseload in the world surged past 49 million on Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The number of global Covid-19 infections rose to 49,247,980 and  the death toll  climbed to 1,241, 981 as of Saturday morning. The US has the highest case tally in the world, as the country recorded 9,732,947 cases with 236,064 fatalities. The United States set a new record on Friday as it surpassed 125,000 daily coronavirus infections while 1,210 people died on the same day. Besides, European countries continue to report record-high single-day case totals as France reported 57,837 new cases with 360 deaths on Friday, Italy recorded 34,502 new cases with 502 fatalities. The UK has registered 24,164 new cases on Friday while 378 people died during this period. Russia has confirmed a record number of 20,582 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 1,733,440, the country's COVID-19 response center said in a statement Friday. Meanwhile, 378 new deaths were reported, taking the nationwide count to 29,887. Moscow, the country's worst-hit region, reported 6,253 new cases, taking its tally of infections to 456,689, the response center said. According to the statement, 1,296,124 people have recovered, including 16,955 over the past day. So far, over 63.5 million tests have been conducted across the country. Meanwhile, Brazil registered 18,862 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national count to 5,631,181, its health ministry said Friday. Over the same period, 279 more deaths from the disease were reported, raising the national death toll to 162,015. The health ministry reported that the latest data are incomplete, because due to technical problems, the states of Sao Paulo (the country's most affected region by the pandemic), Santa Catarina, Amazonas, Tocantins and Amapa did not update the data on Friday. Brazil currently ranks second in the world in terms of COVID-19 deaths, only behind the United States, and third in terms of confirmed cases, following the United States and India. India, the second worst hit country in number of cases recorded 8,411,724 cases while 124,985 people have died so far from Covid-19 till Saturday morning. Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year and the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic in March. There is currently no vaccine for the virus. Source: UNB AH

India’s confirmed coronavirus tally has exceeded 4.6 million after a record surge of 97,570 new cases in 24 hours, reports AP. India on Saturday also reported another 1,201 deaths, taking total fatalities to 77,472. Infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world and it is the second worst-hit country behind the United States. Experts say India’s limited and restrictive testing has masked the actual toll even as daily tests have been ramped up to more than 1 million. The Health Ministry said that over three-fourth of reported COVID-19 cases had either recovered or been discharged. The country’s recovery rate was at 77.7 percent. “The gap between the percentage of recovered cases and active cases is progressively growing wide,” the ministry said. Meanwhile, cases in the western state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, have passed 1 million as the virus continues to surge unabated through its rural and urban areas. Maharashtra is the worst affected state with more than 28,000 COVID-19 fatalities. Nowhere has been the virus more deadly than in Maharashtra, where it has killed 2.8% of those with confirmed infections, well above the national mortality rate of nearly 1.7%. The pandemic has been economically devastating for India. Its economy contracted nearly 24% in the second quarter, the worst among the world’s top economies. Source: AP/UNB AH

Despite a spike in coronavirus cases in the country, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the White House will push state governors hard to get schools opened in the fall. "We're very much going to put pressure on governors and everyone else to open the schools," Trump said at a White House meeting with government officials and school administrators. "Our country has got to get back, and it's got to get back as soon as possible, and I don't consider our country coming back if the schools are closed," Trump said. The president stressed that death rates from the virus are going down, though experts fear they will begin to go back up soon. Trump said on Monday that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden doesn't want schools to open in the fall for "political reasons." "SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!" Trump tweeted on Monday. It's thought the school lockdown has played an active role in the downturn of the U.S. economy which is key to the president's reelection chances. A Biden campaign official told Fox News later that the former vice president "of course" hoped students could return to school in the fall, while urging the authorities to make those decisions to keep in line with recommendations from public health experts. On Tuesday morning, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told state leaders that plans that included only limited in-person instruction were unacceptable, according to local media reports. "American education must be fully open and fully operational this fall!" DeVos tweeted one day earlier. "When it comes to reopening our schools, nobody should hide behind our CDC's (guidance) as a way to not reopen schools," Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said on Tuesday, "our guidance is to enable and empower the reopening of schools and physical attendance by our kids." The Trump administration is rushing to reopen schools at a time when the country is already experiencing significant surges of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases. Almost 3 million people have contracted the virus with more than 131,000 deaths in the U.S. as of Tuesday morning, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. top infectious disease expert, warned on Monday that the country is "still knee-deep in the first wave" of the pandemic and the U.S. handle of the outbreak is "really not good." Source: AP/UNB AH

The number of deaths, caused by coronavirus across the world, reached 524,614 as of Saturday morning. Besides, the total confirmed global cases climbed to 11,047,217 while the number of those who have recovered from the disease crossed 5.7 million during the period, according to data provided by John Hopkins University (JHU). The worst-hit US has recorded 2,793,435 Covid-19 cases with 129,432 deaths. Besides, Brazil, the second-worst country in the world behind the US, has registered over 1.5 million cases. The number of coronavirus deaths stands there at 61,884. Meanwhile, Russia has occupied the third position with 666,941 confirmed cases followed by India (625,544), Peru (295,599), Chile (288,089), and the United Kingdom ( 285,787). In terms of deaths, the UK is in the third position (44,216), followed by Italy (34,833), France (29, 896), Mexico (29,843), Spain (28,385) and India (18,213). Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11. Bangladesh’s weekly ranking Bangladesh on Friday ranked 8th in weekly count of increase in new coronavirus cases, according to WHO. The country ranked 8th with 26,598 new Covid-19 cases in the last seven days, WHO Dashboard showed in its pandemic analysis made based on country, territory and areas. Meanwhile, Bangladesh ranked 9th according to WHO daily Covid-19 new infection reports among the countries. The US has come up to the first position again as 304,156 new cases were reported in seven days, while Brazil ranked the 2nd with 260,122 new cases in a week. India ranked third with 131,536 new cases, while South Africa fourth with 47,537 new cases and Russian Federation fifth with 47,171 new cases in a week. WHO website shows Chile on sixth position with 25,477 new cases in one week while Saudi Arabia seventh with 26,958 new coronavirus cases in seven days. Corona Situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh on Friday reported 3,114 new coronavirus cases and 42 deaths in the last 24 hours till Friday morning. Country’s health authorities have so far reported 156,391 coronavirus cases and 1,968 deaths. Bangladesh reported its first confirmed cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 but it has been seeing a sharp rise in both new cases and deaths in recent weeks. Source: UNB AH

Bangladesh saw a big jump in the coronavirus cases as 564 more people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours till Thursday, taking the total number of infected people to 7667. Besides, the death toll in the country stands at 168 with five more deaths from the virus infection during the same period.   Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), came up with the disclosure in the daily online health bulletin at the Management Information System (MIS) in the afternoon. The global death toll from coronavirus reached 228,223 as of Thursday morning, as countries across the world struggle to contain the virus' spread.   Since it was first reported in China in December last year, coronavirus has infected 3,220,225 people globally, according to Worldometer. Source: UNB AH