A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 28 February 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — ERRATIC BEHAVIOUR
Wall Street eventually stabilised after four days of sell-off that drove US equities markets to their lowest point in five weeks. Sole market index satisfactorily recovering ground was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with a 1% rise. The S&P 500 finished 1% in arrears and S&P’s MidCap 400 fell by a narrow 0.3%. Worst afflicted was the techie bellwether NASDAQ Composite, which plunged to close 3.5% down. Investors had hung on for yardstick artificial intelligence winner and chipmaker Nvidia’s fourth-quarter results, having copped an 8.4% loss on the stock during Thursday. In addition, a constant stream of fresh tariff threats on key trading partners from Donald Trump kept punters enervated.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 25.76 | -2.5% | -4.8% |
| Polaris Industries | 44.92 | -3.5% | -5.8% |
| Textron | 74.73 | +3.3% | -2.3% |
| Niu Technologies | 2.49 | +6.4% | +23.3% |
| LiveWire | 2.30 | -1.3% | -27% |
EUROPE — WAITING TO BE WHACKED
The past week could prove to be Europe’s last without the broad strokes of Trump’s 25% tariff punishments afflicting every aspect of EU exports to the US. But, almost amusingly, there are signs that the spectre of this particular trade war’s arrival is assailing American domestic consumer confidence as well.
Eurozone market indices stayed remarkably positive. In Germany, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax closed 1.2% up. And the Teutonic automotive stocks with biker relationships we monitor — BMW and Volkswagen — both put on share value. The FTSE MIB in Milan did less well, finishing just 0.6% ahead. Italian scooter giant Piaggio’s equity took a spanking, but that could be associated to an imminent and potentially disappointing full-year results revelation.
In Austria, the Wiener Börse ATX surged upwards by 2.4% after Pierer Mobility creditors agreed to write off €1.4bn of the insolvent motorcycle manufacturer’s debt and its shareholders escaped without penalties. However, the company’s share price dived.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 83.90 | +1.6% | +6.7% |
| Volkswagen | 107.10 | +4.6% | +5.6% |
| Pierer Mobility | 20.40 | -15% | +12.4% |
| Piaggio Group | 2.14 | -4.5% | -0.9% |
JAPAN — WALL STREET WOES SPREAD
Trump-induced trading negativity in US markets deleteriously infected Tokyo and Osaka’s key Nikkei 225 index, which plunged sharply by 4.2%. Among Japanese biker-related stocks, only Honda stayed shiny side up, by a slim margin.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1393 | +0.9% | -5.8% |
| Yamaha | 1230 | -0.6% | -5.7% |
| Suzuki | 1821 | -3.1% | -2.6% |
| Kawasaki | 7490 | -4.7% | +6% |
INDIA — SLUMP WORSENS
The decline of Mumbai’s S&P BSE Sensex 30 and NSE Nifty 50 market indices was unabated, respectively falling by the greater rates of 2.8% and 2.9% in the past week. Mired in troublesome economic issues, India’s five major motorcycle manufacturers suffered remorselessly sliding share prices again, all exceeding average market trends.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 3681.10 | -4.5% | -15.2% |
| Bajaj Auto | 7902.90 | -7.1% | -10.7% |
| TVS Motor | 2225.50 | -4.3% | -9.5% |
| Eicher Motors | 4773.60 | -3.8% | -8.1% |
| Mahindra | 2585.10 | -3.2% | -13.5% |
CHINA — FACT OR FICTION?
Despite the constant barrage of threats from Donald Trump since he took office in January, to date he has only imposed a relatively modest 10% tariff on Chinese imports to the US. However, nobody in China believes this Sword of Damocles will remain unapplied for very much longer.
China’s myriad speculative “retail” investors, who are famous for stepping in to buy stocks whenever markets are under pressure, have also been suddenly gripped by an abiding sense of unease and abandoned their usual traits — according to Vanda Track, a Shanghai data company that monitors “retail” trading flows.
A clue to what is now widely anticipated has come from an abrupt switch of the Shanghai SSE Composite and CSI 300 market indices from several weeks of advances to respective 1.7% and 2.2% negativity. Just two of the ten listed Chinese motorcycle producers we track made gains in the past week. Those “retail” punters are selling, not buying.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 18.05 | -6.9% | -9.4% |
| Zongshen | 23.30 | -10.3% | +7.4% |
| Sundiro | 3.81 | +3.3% | +9.5% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 12.53 | -5.6% | N/A |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 9.57 | +5.7% | +54.4% |
| Loncin | 10.67 | -9.8% | +5.1% |
| Linhai | 9.26 | -1.5% | +1.2% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 8.74 | -3.4% | +1.6% |
| CFMoto | 181.00 | -7.1% | -12.3% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 10.17 | -1.7% | N/A |