Mortgage loans up

New mortgage loans approved in Hong Kong in September rose 7.8 percent to HK$14.5 billion from the previous month, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority released the data yesterday.

The number of new mortgage applications rose 18.5 percent.

The value of new mortgage loans drawn down was at HK$11.6 billion, down 4.6 percent from the previous month.

The proportion of new loan approvals priced at more than 2.5 percent below the prime lending rate increased to 83.1 percent from 82.8 percent in August.

The outstanding value of mortgage loans increased 0.2 percent from the previous month to HK$596.7 billion.

The mortgage delinquency ratio was stable at 0.05 percent.

City exports jump 3.6%

Hong Kong's total exports in September rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier in value terms, beating market expectations for a 1.6 percent expansion, as mainland's trade continued to surge.

Total exports in the three months to end-September were 1.3 percent lower than three months earlier, after adjustment for seasonal patterns, the government said on Monday.

New Hope eyes expansion

The parent of New Hope Agribusiness Co, China's largest feed producer, plans to leverage Beijing's new pro-agriculture policies to rapidly expand its pork, chicken and milk production.

"We will invest more than one billion yuan in our agriculture business in 2008, and will increase that amount next year," said Liu Yonghao, who was ranked by Forbes magazine as China's 12th richest person last year with $3.2 billion in net assets.

The company expects the new investment will help double revenues over the next five years, but New Hope's board must first approve the financing, said Liu.

"In five years we want to reach 100 billion yuan in sales," said Liu, who expects group sales to reach about 45 billion yuan this year.

HK interbank rates rise

Hong Kong interbank interest rates jumped yesterday on strong demand for cash from investors who were selling shares in the stock market.

The three-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate was fixed at 3.73929 percent at 0315 GMT, up 45 basis points from Friday, the biggest one-day gain since US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in September. It rose further in the afternoon to 3.95/4.15 percent despite two fund injections by the central bank into the money market.

Reuters

(HK Edition 10/28/2008 page2)