Headlines

l  Y’day: HSI -2.06%, SHCOMP -0.63%, KOSPI -0.95%

l  Overnight: Dow -1.84%, SPX -1.16%, Nasdaq -0.13%

l  US: Fed’s Powell says US economy faces long, uncertain recovery

l  US: McConnell Suggests Senate Cld Hold Court Vote B/f Election

l  HK: 2 local cases y’day.  HK to extend all social distancing rules by another week

l  SINO-US: Trump Says ByteDance Can’t Keep Control of TikTok in Oracle Deal

l  SINO-US: Chinese leaders split over releasing blacklist of US co’s according to WSJ

l  CN: China issued new guidelines to boost new types of consumption, incl online shopping & payments

l  CN: China to intensify the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G & IOT

l  CN: Govt asks detailed dvpr leverage info suggests 3-4-5 rule enforcement cld incl off-B/S debt

l  SK: Confirms 61 more coronavirus cases – 3^rd day below 1000

Today:  Clearly weak markets with lots of headlines spanning virus (UK situation deteriorating) through to Powell comments (long uncertain recovery) to geopolitics (Oracle deal for TikTok in doubt).  Add to that concerns (but nothing confirmed) that enforcement of 3-4-5 rule may be on stricter standards than xpctd (ie including perpetuals & off B/S debt & excl restricted cash from net gearing calculation) is likely to see the Chinese property names weaker today.  I think by now everyone is aware of the more levered names (Evergrande, R&F, Sunac) however deducting restricted cash / perps could also impact names like Jinmao & Agile ++. As we look around the world at the moment I continue to think HK grocery based retail should be better positioned short term.  Japan is closed, but I also think Japan remains interesting. 

Finally: No surprise that a child prefers its mother's voice to those of strangers. A mother's voice can soothe a child in stressful situations, & activates the anterior prefrontal cortex & the left posterior temporal region more strongly than an unfamiliar voice, priming the infant for the specialised task of speech processing. But what happens as children grow up?  Studies now show that a mother's voice activates a wide range of brain structures in older children(ie 7-12yrs olds) incl the amygdala, which regulates emotion, the nucleus accumbens & medial prefrontal cortex, which are part of a major reward circuit, & the fusiform face area, which processes visual face information.  This pattern of brain activity can be likened to a neural fingerprint, where a mother's voice triggers specific activity in her child's brain.  The team found that the more neural connection b/w these 'voice-selective' brain regions & those related to mood, reward & face processing, the more social communication abilities a child had. In other words, the neural fingerprint of a mother's voice w/in a child's brain can predict that child's ability to communicate in the social realm. (Big Think)

Mortgage benchmark rate remains unchanged (PBoC)  LPR stays at 4.65%. 5-year LPR same since April, but average mortgage rate has come down quite a lot since April.

Mortgage quota in shortage in some tier 2-3 cities (The paper)

Seazen plans to issue 3^rd batch of CMBS (Sina) Shanghai stock exchange accepted Seazen’s application of third batch CMBS with a principle amount of Rmb1.3bn.  2nd batch of Rmb2bn is also pending approval.

Mr. Guo Ziwen increased its stake in Aoyuan Healthy (HKEX) bought 1.5m at HK$6.158/sh.

Yuexiu gets HK$500m revolving loan facility for 12mths. (Co)

Donghu Hightech to issue infra public offering REITs under Wuhan Software New City project. (Guandian)

Sinic Hldg (2103) Jan-Aug contract sales Rmb61.4b w/ GFA 4.3m m². (Co)

There were 261 new homes sold over w/e, ↑500%WoW. (HKET)

HK Real Property Federation proposes land reclamation scheme (Apple Daily) Proposes a land reclamation scheme around Guishan Island (to the South of Lantau Island) to provide 7,000 hectares of land & 280k units for 800k residents. The Island is part of Zhuhai, so the Central government’s approval for such a scheme would be needed.

LEGO distributor opened pop-up store at Langham Mall (Champion REIT) (HK01)  In the first weekend, sales totaled HK$400k, with spending per capita 10% higher than the typical LEGO store.

DON DON Donki leases new warehouse space (HKET) Discount chain store opened up 6 new HK stores in a year. Recently leased 26k sqf warehouse space in Kwai Chung for HK$326k per month / HK$12.5 psf/mth

Sa Sa Cosmetics leases new store location in Causeway Bay (HKEJ) a 3-floor street shop location for HK$600k/mth (HK$130 psf). The space has been vacant for 3 months.

Moody's chngs outlook on Wharf REIC to -ive from stable. (Moody’s)

Link REIT bought back 500,000 units (0.0242%) at HK$64.4235/unit on Sep 21. (Co)

Maxwell House up for collective sale w/ S$295m reserve price, built in 1971. 99yr leasehold from 1969. (BT)

Ascendas REIT CEO William Tay Wee Leong rights/options/warrants held ↑to 237,808 from 115,452. (Co)

Ascendas India Trust CEO Sanjeev Dasgupta rights/options/warrants held ↑to 456,646 from 220,612. (Co)

Temasek deemed interest in Mapletree Industrial Trust↑to 29% from 28.93%. (Co)

Geylang's Advance Apt owners eyeing over S$26.5m from collective sale, = S$877/ft² ppr. (BT)

Australian to ease border limits & allow more citizens to return home. (BT)

Moody's assigns Baa1 to Scentre’s hybrid notes. Incl $1.5b 60yr non call 6yr tranche, & a $1.5b 60yr non call 10yr tranche. (Moody’s)

Mapletree Logistics completed acqn of a logistics prop in Truganina, Melb. (Co)

TSI Hldgs will sell Crystal Point, a retail & office bldg in Jinnan, Shibuya-ku for Y4.3b ($41m). (Nikkei RE)

11 industrial corridors w/ 30 projects are being devped in India till 2024-25. (India Times)

* My pa holdings: BAC US, 1 HK, 6 HK, ST SP, TEAM US, GOOGL US, AMZN US, 9988 HK