HONG KONG: Asian markets continued their quiet pace of trading with much of the region still on holiday for the Lunar New Year. Traders and syndicate bankers expected markets to pick up Monday, with a host of potential bond issues.
Despite sessions described as slow, but constructive, the Shanghai and Nikkei indices were up more than 1% each for the day.
While concerns lingered over Greece-related uncertainties, bond markets continued to perform well, particularly in Chinese high yield.
Troubled property firm Kaisa Group's 2017 bonds moved just over a point higher and Chinese real-estate holding company Country Garden drew an order book of over USD3bn for its 5NC3 offering. The bond has yet to price, but guidance has been put out at around 7.875%.
Meanwhile, the Kangaroo bond market remained as buoyant as ever with yet another handful of deals. Asian CDS was 1 to 3 points tighter.
However, it was anything but a quiet day for Noble, a Singapore-listed commodities trader experiencing volatility since a report from Iceberg Research accused it of improper accounting practices.
Trading in its shares was halted ahead of the release of its annual results, after auditor Ernst & Young said it needed more time to review Noble's internal processes.
The firm's 2020 bonds fell almost two full points to 103.6, but bounced back to 105 after Ernst & Young announced it had completed its review and signed off on the year-end accounts. The firm's shares could resume trading tomorrow.
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