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 28 April 2023.

BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.

USA — QUARTERLY SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS

Some mixed quarterly results releases early in the week provoked a renewal of recession fears and a minor Wall Street sell-off. But later strong earnings revelations from America’s largest technology stocks — Facebook parent Meta, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet — reintroduced optimism and positive conclusions for most key market indices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and blue-chip S&P 500 both finished on 0.9% gains and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite rose by a firmer 1.3%.

Only S&P’s MidCap 400 blotted its copybook, posting a 0.3% retreat. Harley-Davidson was a typical MidCap loser, where investors were unimpressed by a mixed Q1 results message. While muscular wholesale put a shine on quarterly revenue from motorcycles, early-season domestic retail demand was shabby, with dealer sales plummeting by 17.3%. Harley’s grief was negligible, though, compared to the worsening trauma of NASDAQ-listed Italian electric superbike manufacturer Energica’s parent Ideanomics. Its share price continued to plunge, sinking to barely more than two cents. A listing suspension may soon become unavoidable.

EUROPE — PLENTY TO WORRY ABOUT

European share price movements were erratic, stirred by suspicions that central bankers were considering further eurozone interest rate increases to keep the lid on inflation. However, Frankfurt’s key Dax Performance index and the Wiener Börse ATX in adjacent Austria closed with mild positivity, respectively 0.3% and 0.1% up. Quite why KTM parent Pierer’s shares suddenly slumped on home turf in Vienna is a mystery, given it no longer publishes quarterly financial updates.

Italian business confidence is clearly weakening, as Milan’s FTSE MIB index fell for a second consecutive week, this time by a more aggressive 2.4%. Piaggio shares incurred a third successive weekly loss.

JAPAN — NEW BANKING BROOM

Japanese stocks briefly hit an eight-month high after new Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda announced a review of the central bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy at his first full board meeting since taking over the BoJ reins. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index touched its highest level since last August, with all sectors except commodities in positive territory, before falling back to close on a 1% weekly advance. Motorcycle manufacturers were among the happy throng.

INDIA — PROFITS IN VIEW

Upbeat quarterly and full-year reporting came to the fore among large Indian corporates, with great expectations anticipated for leading indigenous motorcycle producers — all of whom enjoyed weekly gains. Mumbai’s BSE Sensex market average stacked on 2.4%

CHINA — TENTATIVE RECOVERY

Following the previous week’s rocky ride, Chinese investors got their mo-jo working again to some extent. Shanghai’s all-share SSE Composite index recovered to 0.7% positivity. But the blue-chip CSI 300 covering Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges remained just below par, 0.1% down. Very slightly more than half of listed biker stocks escaped red ink.