Una Galani

Elliott Management is calling for Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s biggest property group, to sell non-core assets and launch a share buyback to improve its returns.

Sometimes it is best to wait it out, and that may be what Chinese President Xi Jinping decides to do with the stock market. The Anywhere-But-China trade, wryly dubbed "ABC" by strategists at BofA, is driving down equities in the People's Republic close to 2016 lows following the collapse of an epic stock market bubble. Both domestic and foreign investors are selling and clawing at other destinations. The decision on Wednesday to replace the chair of the securities regulator does little to address the underlying problem of waning confidence.

MUMBAI, Feb 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Japan's journey back to normality has just taken an unwelcome turn.

In China, HSBC took a hefty $3 billion impairment on its 19% stake in Bank of Communications.

Noel Quinn has unleashed a virtuous cycle at HSBC , . Annual results released on Wednesday show the $155 billion global bank he leads is delivering consistently strong returns and that its investments are driving growth and helping it to ride geopolitical waves. His next challenge is to convince the market to recognise the lender's success.

Big Japanese companies are well equipped for the end of the country's long-standing era of negative interest rates. Yet, when it arrives, the shift in monetary policy will unearth the dark side of Japan Inc lurking beneath the surface: its struggling small businesses.

One and done?. Now for the hard part. The Bank of Japan on Tuesday scrapped negative interest rates, marking the end of more than two decades of

One and done?. Now for the hard part. The Bank of Japan on Tuesday scrapped negative interest rates, marking the end of more than two decades of extraordinary efforts to prevent the $4.2 trillion economy from stagnating. But the nine-member board led by Governor Kazuo Ueda looks divided and sounds tentative about reaching its 2% inflation target and sparking a “virtuous cycle” of growth. That makes the BOJ’s next steps perilous.After months of speculation, the BOJ voted 7-to-2 to set short-term borrowing costs at around 0.0% to 0.1%. For the first time in 17 years, Japan will no longer have negative interest rates. Banks will now earn 0.1% interest on reserves parked with the BOJ, making it easier for them to top up their capital, instead of being charged for keeping some of their balances at the central bank. Ueda and his colleagues also ditched the 1% upper-bound yield target for 10-year government bonds – another unconventional policy that kept long-term rates low – but will continue buying sovereign debt and could ramp that up if there is a spike in long-term yields.And the BOJ will stop purchases of exchange-traded funds, real estate investment trusts and corporate debt, easily the most controversial part of its policy. Markets responded calmly but oddly, with Japanese bond yields and the yen falling rather than rising in response to higher rates.Ueda is taking a leap of faith. The economy just narrowly avoided recession and consumer expectations for price rises remain tepid. Indeed, workers were surprised last week that companies had agreed to wage increases far ahead of unions’ demands. The BOJ is still not confident it will sustainably hit its 2% target nor that wages at small companies will rise. Yet foreign investors and some economists worry rate-setters could soon have to fight an inflationary spiral, partly because of labour shortages in the ageing population.And then there is the legacy of its unconventional policies. The BOJ needs a plan to shrink a balance sheet stuffed with about $4 trillion of government bonds and government securities. Its ETF portfolio alone might be worth 7% of the $6.4 trillion market capitalisation of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime market.Japan doesn’t have a rule on how to deal with losses the BOJ will incur whenever it starts selling its bonds. That could become a problem if concerns about BOJ profitability add to households’ anxiety about Japan’s future, say BofA analysts. They note that the BOJ’s total assets are equivalent to 130% of nominal GDP, above the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 32% and the European Central Bank’s 53%. This makes Japan’s path towards higher rates uniquely fraught, and the social risk is exacerbated by government debt at 252% of GDP, nearly twice the ratio in the United States.Japan has taken a step towards monetary policy normality, but the journey ahead is daunting.

NEW YORK/MUMBAI, March 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It has taken 35 years to restore faith in the earning power and decision-making of Japanese companies.

India is about to stage the world's biggest election from next week, but Narendra Modi can already claim credit for the next decade of growth. While the world economy struggles, the Asian behemoth will keep motoring. The prime minister is hot favourite to win, but his country's economic development doesn't depend on him.