KFM Weekly Investment Update: Friday, 02 November 2018
- Deputy Prime Minister (PM) and Treasurer Charles Abel revealed that the
2019 National Budget would be tabled in Parliament on 13 November,2018
during the Asian-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) Leaders’ summit
week. The Budget has been submitted to the National Executive Council
(NEC) for review before finalisation in the next Parliament sitting scheduled
for 6 November, 2018. According to government sources, the K14.0bln
budget for 2019 is mostly focused on provincial and district service
improvement programmes; - Meanwhile, the Government broadcasted dates for the APEC summit as
follows; the APEC Leaders’ Week is from 12 to 18 November, 2018, the
Senior Officials’ Meeting and the APEC Business Advisory Council (BAC)
meeting are on Monday and Tuesday. The APEC CEO Summit is from
Thursday to Saturday. The APEC Ministers’ Meeting is on Wednesday. 16
November, 2018, has been officially declared as public holiday by the
Cabinet. - Hon.PM Peter O’Neill and his Australian counterpart Mr Scott Morrison have
decided to improve number of bilateral initiatives. The two PMs discussed
bilateral relations and agreed to work together to advance and reinforce
engagement for both countries. The significant initiative was to set up Joint
Naval base in Manus Island. This would provide economic security and
surveillance in the maritime areas and also to avoid illegal trading activities. - Bank of PNG Governor, Mr Loi Bakani revealed that the government would
expect to receive revenue from tax generated this year from the oil and gas
sectors following the upswing in oil and gas price, causing mineral tax to
increase. This would also assist to improve foreign exchange market. Mr
Bakani added that by 2026 as the PNG LNG debt is fully repaid, there would
be increased proceeds to the government that could improve the overall
reserves and the balance of payment position. - Australia & Newzerland (ANZ) Banking Group’s CEO Shayne Elliott revealed
that ANZ produced a messy AUD6.4bln profit approximately the same as last
year. This was predominantly underpinned by proceeds from the sale of a
number of offshore assets and significant reduction in the bad debts. - Bank South Pacific (BSP) has advised its loan customers who have
participated in the unsecured loans at the beginning of the year will be
covered automatically under the BSP’s Life Consumer Credit Insurance. BSP
CEO Robin Fleming explained that this allows any debt up to K50,000 in any
unsecure basis to be covered by the premium and customers don’t have to
pay any fees for that particular feature. - Newcrest Mining (NCM) announced its first quarter financial performance
report for 2019 financial year (FY19). According to Managing Director (MD)
and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Sandeep Biswas, the first quarter
FY19 Cadia’s operating and financial performance continued to improve with
higher production and lower AISC per ounce both year-on-year and quarteron-
quarter. Gold production for the Group was higher than the corresponding
quarter of FY18, but lower than the prior quarter - This week’s BPNG auction in Central Bank Bills were over-subscribed by
K8.0m out of the total amount offered K259.0m. This indicated that there was
an increase in appetite for shorter dated securities. The weighted average
yield for 28 days remained unchanged at 1.39% from the previous week.
There were no bids for 63,91 and 182 days - This week’s BPNG auction in Treasury Bills were under-subscribed by
K97.2m out of the total amount offered K130.4m. This indicated that there
was a decrease in appetite for longer dated securities. The weighted average
yields for 182 days remained unchanged at 4.73% while 364 days down by
0.10% to 8.05% from 8.06% from the previous week. There were no bids for
63, 91 and 273 days. - The KSi Index down by 0.2% to end the week at 5,415.62 points due to
dropped in share price of OHS by 0.5% to close at K20.50 while KSHi Index
remained unchanged from the previous week at 11,441.71 points.