HONGKONG STOCK MARKET, June 20-24, 1988
issue of the investigation.
North of the border, in an attempt to eliminate black market trading in privately-owned State Treasury Bonds, China said that it would open up 18 official Treasury bond markets.
Only State Treasury bonds issued in 1985 and 1986, which earn an annual interest of 9 percent and have a 5- year term, would be allowed to be traded on the market.
Back in the 'Empire', the Cable and Wireless Group, announced a Profit of 356 million pounds (about $HK4.96 billion) for the last Financial Year, up 16 million pounds (about $HK224 million) over the preceding Year.
Of the Profit, 72 percent came from the Group's op- erations in Hongkong.
Shareholders of the Kadoorie-Family-controlled Nan- yang Cotton Mill Ltd criticized the company for sitting on shareholders' funds.
The company was described as overly cautious and conservative. A number of shareholders also queried the $HK12 million paid to the Directors of the company in bonuses.
Regal Hotels (Holdings) Ltd said that it intends to continue its expansion program in Thailand, despite the problems that the company has already encountered there.
Regal Hotels bought a 15-percent stake in the Land- mark hotel development, but the company's Thai partner, Siam Property Development Ltd, has since accused Regal Hotels of not fulfilling the purchase agreement.
Recently, the hotel company has had its overseas ex- pansion program set back by losing out to The Wharf (Holdings) Ltd in a bid to purchase the US-based Omni
Thursday
Hotel Group.
China International Land and Investment Corporation (CITIC) sold 9.1 percent of its holdings in The Ka Wah Bank Ltd to The People's Construction Bank of China.
The price for the stake, about 20 million shares, was $HK36 million. CITIC's stake in The Ka Wah Bank was reduced to 71.4 percent.
QPL (Holdings) Ltd sold its 50 percent stake in the QPL-KSIP Holdings Centre in Tsimshatsui to Kee Shing (Holdings) Ltd for $HK45 million.
In Tokyo, the afternoon slide of the Nikkei Stock Av- erage came to a halt at 27,860.78, down 65 points from the previous close.
On the Hang Seng Index Futures Market, the spot month of June was at a discount of 2 points to the Hang Seng Index, closing at 2,701, down one point.
The month of July closed at 2,715, moving up 5 points, and the far month of August closed at 2,720, a gain of 10 points.
Major news included:
(a) According to figures released by Nomura Research International Company Ltd, overseas investors are putting their money back into Japanese stocks after 2 years of active selling;
(b) In a further attempt to put a stop to inflation, the Bank of England increased its Base Rate by another half a percentage point for the third time this month; and, (c) Vietnam elected a new Prime Minister. Mr Do Muoi, an economic specialist, replaced Mr Pham Hung, who died of a heart attack in March.
The morning session opened with the news that Wall Street had enjoyed another firm day's trading, but during the day the market performance in Japan had a negative effect on Hongkong punters.
It seemed that local investors were unsure of which Market to follow, and brokers expressed some surprise that the upward movement in the Dow Jones Industrial Average did not follow through in Hongkong.
Initially, sentiment was positive after an overnight climb of more than 43 points on the Dow, but by lunchtime, another fall in Tokyo had whittled the Hang Seng Index back down almost to its opening levels.
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