第三大產油國利比亞大亂石油供應急降 期油價金價「坐火箭」

利比亞大亂 油金「坐火箭」
 (星島)2011年2月25日 星期五
(綜合報道)

(星島日報    報道)國際油價連續第四日攀升，倫敦    期油價昨日逼近每桶百二美元    ，創三十個月新高；紐約    期油也兩年半以來首度重越每桶一百美元水平，反映非洲    第三大產油國利比亞石油供應急降，且市場擔心該國亂局有蔓延至其他中東產油國之虞，刺激油價飆升。金價也續創七周高位，瑞郎和日圓    的避險地位也進一步增強，兌美元分別創紀錄高位和兩周新高。

本報財經組

承接之前三個交易日的升勢，四月份倫敦布蘭特原油期貨價格昨日高位曾攀上每桶一一九點七九美元，升百分之七點六八，為○八年八月以來最高。紐約四月期油價格也步入第三日升勢，曾高見每桶一○三點四一美元，升百分之五點四一，亦創逾兩年半新高。

期油破百 金見1418

現貨金價昨天續升，一度上揚至每盎司一四一八點二美元，升百分之零點四六，為一月三日以來新高。

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匯價方面，市場憂慮中東政局不穩，瑞郎和日圓繼續受追捧。在連跌兩日後，美元昨天續挫，曾低見零點九二四一瑞郎（瑞郎兌八點四二九港元）的紀錄低位，跌百分之零點九五；美元兌日圓也步入連續第七個交易日下跌，曾低見八十一點七一日圓（每百日圓兌九點五三三港元），跌百分之零點九七，為二月四日以來新低。三菱UFJ信託的外匯及金融交易部經理塚田表示，中東形勢化在惡化，投資者紛紛避險，資金湧進日圓和瑞郎，刺激該兩種貨幣匯價急升。

瑞郎日圓創新高

此外，加息前景的推動下，歐羅    兌美元續升，昨日高位曾見一點三八○八美元（兌十點七五六四    港元），升百分之零點四三，為二月三日來最高位；歐羅兌日圓則下挫，曾滑落至一一二點一九日圓，跌百分之一點一。

日減產40萬桶

利比亞是非洲第三大產油國以及全球第十二大石油出口商，目前擁有非洲最大油儲量。據路透社估算，該國局勢惡化前每日石油產量一百六十萬桶，現時每日下降最少四十萬桶，即兩成半。能源公司ENI更估計利比亞的每日減產數目為一百二十萬桶。

高盛的分析師居里發表報告說，利比亞亂局有蔓延至沙特阿拉伯    等其他中東產油國之虞，最後可能導致全球石油嚴重緊絀，而問題在於石油輸出國組織（OPEC）的後備產能中，利比亞佔其半，該國石油供應大降，勢將扭曲全球石油市場。

Macau Home Prices May Climb as Much as 20% as Casino Growth Fuels Demand

Macau Home Prices May Climb as Much as 20% as Casino Growth Fuels Demand
By Kelvin Wong - Feb 23, 2011

Macau home prices, which have recovered to pre-global credit crisis levels, may rise as much as 20 percent this year as the city’s economy benefits from an expanding casino industry.

Residential values in the world’s biggest gambling hub will gain 20 percent in 2011, according to Midland Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong’s largest publicly traded real estate agency. Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., the world’s second-biggest commercial property broker, predicts a 10 percent gain, while London-based Savills Plc forecasts a 15 percent jump.

Low interest rates, a lack of new supply and rising personal incomes driven by a 58 percent surge in casino revenue helped real estate prices in the former Portuguese colony in southern China climb 15 percent in 2010 even as the government introduced measures to stamp out speculation.

“The property market is now being supported by locals whose incomes have risen off the casino boom, and also the huge demand for rental from foreign workers coming in for the new casinos and other infrastructure projects,” said Gregory Ku, managing director for Macau at Jones Lang.

Casino revenue in Macau may climb 30 percent to $30 billion this year as visitors from mainland China increase, CLSA Ltd. said in a report last month. China contributed more than half the number of Macau’s 25 million tourist arrivals last year.

Macau’s casino revenue grew to more than four times that of the Las Vegas Strip after the government allowed the entry of overseas operators in 2002, including Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s biggest casino company by market value, and Wynn Resort Ltd., ending billionaire Stanley Ho’s four-decade monopoly.

Local Investors

Prices for some luxury projects, such as the One Central Macau Residences co-developed by Ho’s Shun Tak Holdings Ltd. and Hongkong Land Holdings Ltd., have risen to about 6,000 patacas ($748) to 7,000 patacas a square foot at the end of last year from about 4,000 patacas in early 2009, according to Jones Lang.

About 10 percent of those who bought the properties last year were foreign investors, compared with about 35 percent between 2007 and 2008, said Ku.

“The credit crisis has pretty much driven out all the foreign funds looking to make a quick profit,” he said.

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd., the casino operator part- owned by Permira Advisers LLP, plans to hire as many as 8,000 workers this year after the opening of its 600-table casino in Macau’s Cotai district, Chief Financial Officer Robert Drake said Feb. 15. Macau, the only region in China where casinos are legal, has a population of 550,000.

Huge Demand

The city’s government is building a light-rail system aimed to be finished in 2014 and is working with neighboring Hong Kong and Zhuhai to build a bridge connecting the three cities.

“People are earning more and that’s creating a huge demand to upgrade to better properties,” said Franco Liu, managing director for Savills’s Macau unit. “With limited new land supply in the next few years, there’s so much pressure on prices to keep going up.”

Prices of some luxury apartments have risen as much as 80 percent from the trough during the credit crisis, prompting the government last year to impose higher property transaction taxes and raise mortgage down payments for transactions larger than 3.3 million patacas.

That may lead luxury prices to lag “slightly behind” those in the mass market this year, said Savills’s Liu.

“The measures may push some buyers to shift to lower value properties because they can get a higher mortgage and fall into a lower tax brackets,” he said.

Luxury Prices

With no standard definition for Macau luxury prices, property agencies normally distinguish them from those in the broader market based on location and prices, said Stanley Poon, managing director for Macau at Centaline Property Agency Ltd., Hong Kong’s biggest closely held realtor. Centaline forecasts Macau home prices to rise 15 percent in 2011.

Macau’s luxury home prices fell as much as 40 percent in early 2009 from a previous height in 2007, according to Centaline, after several foreign funds sold investments and developers halted projects as liquidity dried up during the credit crisis.

The number of property transactions fell to 17,000 in 2009, a seven-year low, before rebounding to 30,000 last year, according to data from the Macau government.

Macau’s economy may rise 26 percent in 2010 from a year earlier, according to a forecast by Secretary of Economy and Finance Francis Tam. The jobless rate of 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter was the lowest since 1999, according to government statistics.

Limited Supply

About 80 percent of Macanese own their homes, whose values are still at “a substantial discount” to properties in Hong Kong, about an hour by ferry, said Tom Ashworth, fund manager for Macau Property Opportunities Fund Ltd., which has about $333 million in assets and is developing residential projects including the Fountainside in Macau. Hong Kong home prices have surged about 60 percent in the past two years.

“That gap’s got to close,” Ashworth said. “It’s not going to go to parity, but we believe the current 70 percent discount to Hong Kong could definitely narrow to maybe 50 percent.” Ashworth compared prices at One Central Macau and Hong Kong’s Bel-Air, a luxury apartment project in Hong Kong’s Island South district where units are selling at about HK$20,000 ($2,567) a square foot.

Approval for new real estate and infrastructure projects has slowed since the jailing of a former senior government official in 2008 that sparked a series of anti-graft measures by the government, said Ronald Cheung, managing director for Macau at Midland.

About 2,500 new apartments in projects including the One Grantai and The Riviera Macau are expected to be completed in 2011, down from 3,400 in 2010, he said. Annual completion will probably fall below 1,000 in each of 2012 and 2013 before rebounding in 2014.

“This two-year gap will continue to push up both rents and prices for new units,” Cheung said. “Buyers are also mindful of the threat of inflation that’s driven by the low interest rates,” which are near 20-year low, he said.

香港政府注資強積金 每人六千

政府注資強積金 每人六千
 (明報)2011年2月23日 星期三

財政司    長曾俊華    宣布，向所有擁有強積金    的市民，一次過派發6000元，注入他們的強積金戶口。

曾俊華在財政預算案中表示，為增加強積金和職業退休計劃成員的退休儲蓄，建議為所有在今年2月23日已成為強積金計劃或職業退休計劃下，受香港《僱傭條例    》涵蓋的成員的人士，向他們的強積金戶口一次過注入6,000元。

Wall Street Journal Online

他指，這次的注資建議不設收入上限，希望協助更多市民為退休作好準備。這既不會增加通脹壓力，也是政府現在財政上可負擔的。

他表示，已經為這項措施預留240億元。財經事務及庫務局    稍後會公布詳情，積金局    會協助執行注資工作。他希望在2011至12年度內，開始向有關的強積金戶口注入款項。

（即時新聞）