Tue, Mar 14, 2023 page11

• Asian financial stocks drop as SVB risks assessed

  CONTAGION FEARS: The California bank’s problems with financing costs and huge investment losses are not unique and could wipe out the start-up sector, analysts said

  • Bloomberg
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  Asian financial stocks fell for a second day as the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) deepened concerns that soaring interest rates are eroding balance sheets across the sector.

  The MSCI AC Asia Pacific Financials Index dropped as much as 1.3 percent yesterday, hitting its lowest level since Dec. 20 and adding to Friday’s 2.2 percent slump.

  Japanese bank shares were particularly hard hit, with a gauge tracking the sector falling 4 percent after slumping 5.4 percent on Friday.

  

  Currency traders watch monitors at KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Feb. 22.

  Photo: AP

  Asian lenders declined even as US authorities on Sunday raced to stem jitters about the health of the nation’s financial system, pledging to fully protect all depositors’ money following the collapse of SVB while also giving any banks squeezed for cash easier terms on short-term loans.

  Fears of contagion from the largest US bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis are spreading around the world, upending the outlook for everything from riskier assets to US interest rates.

  Despite US government intervention, stalwart investors such as Pershing Square founder Bill Ackman predict more casualties in the US banking system, and some start-up founders have warned that SVB’s failure could lead to wipeouts in the sector.

  “The market should not underestimate the risks of SVB saga, as its problems are not unique, including rising financing costs and huge investment losses due to asset-debt maturity mismatch,” China International Capital Corp (中國國際金融) analysts including Liu Zhengning (劉政寧) wrote in a note on Saturday.

  It might be worth showing some “attention to non-bank financial institutions, which may be sitting on high leverage and maturity mismatch as they stayed in low interest environment for too long,” they said.

  Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc and Japan Post Bank Co all fell more than 3 percent. South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group Co and Hana Financial Group Inc slumped before erasing losses, while Australia’s ANZ Group Holdings Ltd and National Australia Bank Ltd dropped more than 1.5 percent each.

  “The point that caught the eye of the bond market is that SVB has sold most of its available-for-sale bonds, which carried net unrealized losses,” SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Masao Muraki wrote in a note on Friday.

  “There are concerns that other US banks and Japanese banks/life insurers will follow suit amid renewed inflation fears and rising long and short-term interest rates,” Muraki wrote.

  To be sure, some market participants have said that Asia is likely to face limited contagion risk due to superior growth prospects, lenders’ diverse customer base and improving asset quality.

  Banking stocks in China and India bucked a broader weakness in the sector amid low exposure to the US. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行) rose as much as 3 percent, while India’s ICICI Bank Ltd advanced 1.5 percent.

  Elsewhere, a measure of the biggest Philippine banks slid as much as 1.9 percent as all of its nine components declined. Bank of the Philippine Islands, Security Bank Corp and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp each fell more than 2 percent.
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