Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
CHINA Investment Corp, the nation's US$200-billion sovereign wealth fund, signaled it may invest in stocks rocked by subprime mortgage defaults. "CIC wants to be a stabilizing force in the international capital markets," Chairman Lou Jiwei told a conference in Beijing yesterday. He then cited a "recent example" in which a similar fund invested in a financial institution with subprime losses, without elaborating. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority this week agreed to buy a US$7.5-billion stake in Citigroup Inc, helping the biggest United States bank by assets to bolster capital eroded by credit-market losses. China Investment, which began operations in September, was set up to help improve returns on China's US$1.4 trillion of reserves and to oversee bailouts of the nation's own lenders, Bloomberg News said. "The steady stream of funds' buying of distressed assets tells us there is a buyer of last resort out there," said Robert Rennie, chief currency
Business News from Times Online
What on earth is happening in the financial markets? Last week Northern Rock was going bust, stock markets were collapsing and the world banking system seemed to be going down the tubes. Now everything has reversed. Markets are soaring. Northern Rock shareholders, instead of losing everything, as expected a week ago are threatening to sue the Government unless they double their money. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the world's biggest investment institution, suddenly launched a dawn raid on Tuesday to snap up $7.5 billion worth of shares in Citicorp, the world's biggest and most troubled bank. So is the financial world about to collapse or are all the crises over?