SHARE PRICES AND MARKET ANALYSIS

A snapshot of bike and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 12 August 2022. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.

USA — PIVOTAL UPBEAT SWING
New York’s equities trading rumour mill was on full throttle right from the get-go, as analysts awaited a mid-week announcement of annualised consumer price inflation data for July. When this duly arrived, it became the subject of exultation. Headline inflation had fallen, from 9.1% in June, to 8.5%. Crucially, this was lower than a predicted figure of 8.7%.

Brushing aside an inevitable warning from the US Federal Reserve central bank, that further aggressive interest-rate hikes were necessary to curb still remorselessly rising prices, markets celebrated with gusto. Indices climbed right across the board. The blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on respective 3.3% and 2.9% weekly advances. S&P’s MidCap 400 flaunted a more muscular 4.4% increase.

HOGOMETER
Harley-Davidson was a typical MidCap listing in these circumstances. Optimism pushed its share price up by 2.6% on Monday, before caution on Tuesday wiped 1.4% off. Then the inflation data release on Wednesday engendered a 3.2% price surge. Further gains of 1.8% on Thursday and 1% on Friday followed, cementing this possibly over-enthusiastic return to investor confidence.

EUROPE — SEASONAL STASIS
Summer illiquidity with much thinner trading volumes kept European market indices tame but generally positive. In Frankfurt, the Xetra Dax put on 1.6%. Milan’s FTSE MIB index in Italy marginally bettered the Germans with a 1.8% lift. All four biker-related stocks across these exchanges stayed shiny side up.

JAPAN — STRONG NUMBERS FOR BIKE STOCKS
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index improved modestly, 1.3% up on a raft of better-than-expected quarterly corporate reporting. Having delivered evidence of solid improvement in their Asian operations, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki basked in the limelight, their share prices racing ahead of the market average. Kawasaki’s Q1 report was unveiled after the Tokyo stock exchange had closed for business on Friday afternoon, and therefore accrued no benefit.

INDIA — SLOW DOWN
Mumbai’s BSE Sensex 30 stock index put on 1.8%. But motorcycle manufacturers mainly dropped off investors’ radar, prior to September’s seasonal build-up towards the Diwali festival and their peak sales period kicking in. Shares in the three biggest indigenous producers — Hero, Bajaj and TVS — all seriously underperformed versus the Sensex average.

CHINA — POSITIVE MOOD
Chinese anger over American support for Taiwan appeared to subside quite quickly, at least as far as commercial activity was concerned. Market indices perked up. Shanghai’s all-share SSE Composite rose by 1.5% and the blue-chip CSI 300 covering the biggest companies listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen put on 0.8%. Only two of China’s eleven listed motorcycle manufacturers — Honda affiliate Guangzhou Auto and KTM-related CFMoto — lost ground. All the rest were positive. Benelli parent Qianjiang, in particular, recovered handsomely.