Chinese stock rally stalls after Beijing holds off on fiscal stimulus

In today’s newsletter:

Good morning. China’s blistering stock market rally cooled yesterday after Chinese authorities held off on unveiling more stimulus for the economy.

The blue-chip CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks surged 10.8 per cent upon opening after a week-long holiday, before falling back to close 5.9 per cent higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plunged 9.4 per cent, its worst day since October 2008, after having risen 11 per cent over the previous five days.

Investor expectations had been building that Beijing would detail plans for greater fiscal spending to complement a monetary stimulus that had propelled Chinese equities to their best week since 2008.

But markets were disappointed when state planners did not announce major stimulus measures yesterday, analysts said.

“This is what happens when you feed the monster,” said Alicia García-Herrero, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Natixis. “Every day you need to increase the amount of food or it turns against you.” Read the full story.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Monetary policy: India and New Zealand’s central banks announce interest rate decisions.

• Japan: New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will dissolve parliament ahead of elections on October 27.

• Results: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chipmaker, reports September sales.

Five more top stories

1. Exclusive: Chevron is in talks to sell its east Texas natural gas assets to Tokyo Gas, said three people familiar with the discussions, as the Japanese utility looks to expand its access to the abundant US shale patch. If completed, the deal would bolster Tokyo Gas’s drive to secure supplies for its home country, which relies on fossil fuel imports to meet its energy needs.

2. Samsung Electronics has issued a public apology and acknowledged that the company is considered to be in “crisis”, following the release of worse than expected profit guidance. The company’s share price has fallen almost 30 per cent over the past six months amid growing concern over its lack of competitiveness in cutting-edge chips used in artificial intelligence systems.

3. Donald Trump had as many as seven conversations with Vladimir Putin after he left the White House, according to explosive reports that raise fresh questions about the former US president’s relationship with the Russian leader. The claims stem from a forthcoming book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward, which also reveals Trump secretly sent Putin Covid-19 tests for his personal use at the height of the pandemic.

4. India will radically reform regulations and invite foreign oil majors to explore both onshore and offshore as it races to extract as much oil as possible while there remains a market for crude, the country’s oil and gas minister has said. Hardeep Singh Puri spoke about his efforts to trigger more oil exploration at the FT’s Energy Transition Summit India in Delhi.

5. The Israeli military deployed thousands more troops in Lebanon and signalled an expanded ground offensive against Hizbollah. The Israel Defense Forces may now have more than 20,000 troops in the country, a significant rise on the initial force that invaded last week.

The Big Read

Most US allies would prefer Kamala Harris’s election victory over the presumed unpredictability of a second Donald Trump term. “If she wins, we will have a national holiday!” an official from one of Washington’s long-standing Asian partners joked. But the vice-president would enter the Oval Office with one of the least articulated visions of the world and America’s place in it. Critics of Harris say she has yet to clearly define her foreign policy vision, but the contours of a philosophy are starting to emerge.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Exploding pagers: The risk of hardware tampering is rising as companies devote few resources to verifying the origin of components, writes Chip War author Chris Miller.

• ‘Superfast charging’ EVs: Asian battery makers are racing to develop new generations of cells for electric vehicles that will make charging as fast as filling up at the pump.

• Book review: In The Great Transformation, Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian provide a superb history of China’s transition into and out of the Cultural Revolution.

Chart of the day

Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs would not deliver the industrial regeneration protectionists desire, writes Martin Wolf. In fact, they would have the opposite effect, and inflict great harm on the global economy.

Take a break from the news

UK-based Afghan singer Elaha Soroor uses music to respond to the Taliban’s brutal suppression of female voices. “I don’t want to preach to anybody, but I can talk about my own experience,” she told the FT. But can a song change anything? Here’s what Soroor said.

Additional contributions from Gordon Smith and Irwin Cruz