A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 14 July 2023. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — PARTY TIME!
US consumer price index inflation fell from an annualised 4% in May to 3% in June, the lowest figure since March 2021. Understandably, this was seen as a cause for wild celebration. Optimists took the news as a signal that further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes would cease forthwith. Some observers thought otherwise, on the basis that core inflation was still running at a higher level but were studiously ignored.
Equities trading in New York accelerated, driven by both this welcome inflation data and a boost from the quarterly corporate reporting season’s advent. Early half-year results flaunted strong performance from the American banking sector, which has been trousering enhanced profits from higher interest rates thanks to the Fed, rather than passing the benefit onto savers.
Market indices soared without exception. Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average made respective 2.4% and 2.3% weekly gains. The S&P MidCap 400 did better, 2.7% up, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite beat the lot with a 3.3% rise. Among powersport stocks, Harley-Davidson and Polaris Industries both made reasonable advances, as did Harley’s LiveWire electric bike spin-off.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 36.00 | +3.4% | +4.8% |
| Polaris Industries | 127.81 | +4.8% | +5.4% |
| Textron | 67.30 | -0.3% | +1% |
| Ideanomics (Energica) | 0.092 | N/A | +12.2% |
| Niu Technologies | 4.01 | -4.8% | -6.5% |
| LiveWire | 11.98 | +2.4% | +19.1% |
EUROPE — JUMPING THE GUN
European investors assumed apparent US success in the battle against inflation would translate into an improvement on our side of the Atlantic too — without any actual evidence that this would be the case. So confidence and market indices across the eurozone improved in parallel. Germany’s Xetra Dax in Frankfurt and the Italian FTSE MIB in Milan rose strongly in unison, to close 3.2% up.
However, motorcycle-related stocks featured in both weren’t invited to the party. In the former, BMW and Ducati parent Volkswagen incurred minor losses. In the latter, Piaggio took a firmer spanking. The Wiener Börse ATX index in Austria was more consistent with biker content, improving by 1.5% while its KTM parental Pierer Mobility listing put on 1.8%.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 106.76 | -0.4% | -4.4% |
| Volkswagen | 151.85 | -0.7% | -5% |
| Pierer Mobility | 79.60 | +1.8% | +6.1% |
| Piaggio Group | 3.57 | -1.9% | -5.3% |
JAPAN — FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index flatlined, as BoJ central bankers dithered over potential currency stimulus. And big exporting companies, for which repatriated yen translation is crucial as the quarterly reporting season becomes imminent, took the brunt of associated discomfort. All four indigenous motorcycle manufacturers qualified for this category and saw their share prices punished accordingly.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 4198 | -2.2% | -5.9% |
| Yamaha | 3893 | -4.5% | -1.6% |
| Suzuki | 5245 | -4% | +3.9% |
| Kawasaki | 3429 | -7.8% | -3.1% |
INDIA — FALSE PROMISE
During the previous week, motorcycle market leader Hero MotoCorp had unveiled a dose of cheap curry-flavoured Harley badge engineering to challenge local retro king Royal Enfield parent Eicher in India’s “premium” bike milieu. Fickle Mumbai investors had rewarded Hero with an 8.2% surge in share value and savaged Eicher, inflicting an 11% plunge. Five sessions later, an inevitable hangover relating to the deeply unconvincing nature of this alleged “Harley-Davidson” put their collective boot on the other foot. Hero stock turned negative, while Eicher gained a merciful rebound.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 3136.30 | -0.4% | +10.7% |
| Bajaj Auto | 4859.60 | +0.5% | +4.7% |
| TVS Motor | 1350.75 | +2.2% | -0.2% |
| Eicher Motors | 3347.10 | +5.1% | -5.4% |
| Mahindra | 1546.55 | -1.1% | +10.2% |
CHINA — DEFLATION DANGER
Speculative Chinese domestic equities investment is becoming progressively decoupled from reality. Data released in the past week showed China’s consumer price index falling month-on-month, and factory-gate prices declining at the fastest pace for seven years, as demand for consumer and manufactured goods waned in the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese imports and exports both shrank at a greater rate in June too.
But stock trading volume has just inexplicably gone the other way. Shanghai’s all-share SSE Composite index grew by 1.3% and the blue-chip CSI 300 spanning both Shanghai and Shenzhen finished 1.9% up. However, investor enthusiasm for motorcycle manufacturers is fading away. Eight of the eleven listed biker stocks upon which we report turned negative.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 17.13 | -4.9% | -9.6% |
| Zongshen | 7.09 | -0.7% | +3.7% |
| Sundiro | 2.57 | -3.4% | -2.7% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 14.47 | -2.4% | +0.3% |
| Lifan | 3.75 | -1.4% | +6.2% |
| Loncin | 5.35 | -0.2% | +3.9% |
| Linhai | 9.41 | +0.6% | +2.2% |
| Guangzhou Auto | 10.77 | -2.4% | +3.6% |
| CFMoto | 155.20 | -5.4% | N/A |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 17.67 | +1.1% | +8.4% |
| Currency: HK dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Jianshe | 4.83 | N/A | +7.8% |