tyb
here ya go
BOJ Becomes Biggest Japan Stock Owner with $434 Billion Hoard
The Bank of Japan has taken over as the biggest owner of the nation’s stocks, with the total value of its holdings climbing well above $400 billion.
Massive exchange-traded fund purchases by the BOJ to support the market amid the pandemic this year combined with subsequent valuation gains pushed its Japanese equity portfolio to 45.1 trillion yen ($434 billion) in November, according to estimates by Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at NLI Research Institute. That marks the first time that the central bank’s holdings have eclipsed those of the Government Pension Investment Fund, which Ide estimates stood at 44.8 trillion yen last month, based on gains on top of its holdings as of end-September.
Regardless of which whale is larger, the dominant presence of these two public entities has raised concerns over their influence on market prices. The combination of “a state-run institution, the BOJ, and the country’s representative public pension fund, the GPIF, buying up local equities feels distorted,” said Satoshi Okumoto, chief executive officer at Fukoku Capital Management Inc. The GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund, increased its equity market presence in 2014 when it doubled its allocation target for local stocks to 25% as part of an effort to increase returns through a shift into riskier assets. The BOJ’s ETF purchases started in 2010 and accelerated later as part of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s unprecedented stimulus package aimed at revitalizing the economy.
The BOJ ramped up its support program even further this year as the coronavirus outbreak sent equity markets tumbling, saying in March it could potentially purchase 12 trillion yen worth of Japan ETFs this year, double its annual target. After a few months of heavy buying the pace has slowed back down, and it’s likely the total for 2020 will fall far short of the new theoretical limit. Even at the current pace, however, “the gap between the BOJ and GPIF’s stock holdings will widen further,” according to NLI Research’s Ide, especially if share prices continue to rise. Amid a global rebound on the back of Covid-19 vaccine developments, the benchmark Topix climbed 11% in November while the Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged 15% in its best month since 1994. That pushed unrealized gains on the BOJ’s stock purchases to over 10 trillion yen at one point in November, according to Ide. “The BOJ has never taken profits on its holdings and only continues to build its holdings in ETFs,” said Takashi Ito, an equity market strategist at Nomura Securities Co. The GPIF, meanwhile, “has to sell equities when prices are high to adjust the weight of stock holdings within its portfolio.”
NLI Research’s Ide says the BOJ “could face more scrutiny” over whether it needs to continue buying equities when prices are elevated like they are presently. BOJ Governor Kuroda has repeatedly said that the ETF purchases are needed as part of monetary stimulus to reach the BOJ’s inflation target.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/boj-becomes-biggest-japan-stock-owner-with-434-billion-hoard-1.1532659
recall that Blackrock was hired to do this by the FRBNY (buy ETF's) and announced back in MArch.
They have done this for as long as the ETF mkt has existed-grew like weeds in 2006-so that was just a formalizing of something already going on.(muh opinion)
The entire trash for cash (Repo Mkts) really got going in Oct.2002 just in front of the second gulf war.
sort of a Seurat vibe to this
Sinovac Sells $500 Million Stake as Vaccine Nears Finish Line
One of China’s biggest generic drug makers is investing around $500 million to fund research and production of a frontrunner coronavirus vaccine candidate from Sinovac Biotech Ltd. that could be weeks away from being administered across the world.
Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd. will purchase a 15% stake in a Sinovac unit called Sinovac Life Sciences Co., the Beijing-based vaccine maker said in a statement posted on its website Monday. Sino Biopharm’s stock rose as much as 4.6% on Monday morning before paring gains. The investment comes as Sinovac’s CoronaVac shot starts being shipped to countries across the world in preparation for mass inoculation efforts. The Chinese company is expected to release data from final stage testing within days that will show how effective the vaccine is.
For Sino Biopharm, the investment is an effort at pivoting its business as a government policy to slash the prices of generic drugs puts pressure on its core revenue stream. Last week, its stock plunged 12% after its third-quarter earnings missed expectations, and analysts expect the drop in revenue to worsen in the final quarter.
Sinovac said it would use the funding for “further development, capacity expansion and manufacturing” of its vaccine. It’s now in the midst of analyzing interim data from its Phase III trials in Brazil. The next step is for the company to submit the data to the Chinese drug regulator for approval for mass use. A large ramp-up in production for distribution locally and across the globe would then follow.
Sinovac said it aims to manufacture 300 million doses of CoronaVac annually and is nearing completion of a second factory that will double its production capacity. In addition to supplying the shot in China, the company will need to ship the vaccine either in bulk or in vials to countries including Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil.
Sino Biopharm’s push into innovative therapies reflects how the generic drugs are increasingly a non-viable business model for both local and foreign pharmaceutical companies. Though the company was an early winner in Beijing’s centralized drug procurement program that awards supply tenders to the lowest bidders, its offer to slash prices by more than 90% has eroded revenue and profits. The company said in its earnings statement that it expected the effects from China’s latest round of centralized drug procurement, which cut prices by an average of 53%, to materialize in the last quarter.
Sino Biopharm’s shares have lost more than a third of their value since late July.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/sinovac-sells-500-million-stake-as-vaccine-nears-finish-line-1.1532696
These are from trip in 2018 shortly before the anniv then.