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 30 December 2022. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.

USA — A YEAR TO FORGET

In the final dying days of 2022, American investors could reflect ruefully on their worst year since the financial crisis of 2008. Global stocks and bonds incurred losses of more than 30 trillion bucks, as rampant inflation, reactive interest rate rises, the risk of recession and Ukraine’s war triggered unprecedented punishment on trading values.

The MSCI All-World index of developed and emerging market equities ended the year down by nearly a fifth in worth. Leading bourses from Wall Street to Frankfurt and Shanghai all suffered significant annualised falls.

In a swansong week twixt Christmas and New Year, stretching to barely three and a half trading sessions and characterised by major activist absenteeism, New York indices floundered. Deal-making was desultory in the extreme. The blue-chip S&P 500 and S&P’s MidCap 400 hardly moved, respectively dropping by 0.1% and 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered similar respective fates, 0.3% and 0.2% down.

EUROPE — SHARING THE PAIN

Investors were desperately thin on the ground in European markets too. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax index moved lower by a negligible 0.1%. The FTSE MIB in Milan sank by a more firmly miserable 0.7%.

The only biker-related light in Teutonic darkness came from a patriotic 10.6% weekly surge for shares in KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas parent Pierer Mobility, on Austria’s Wiener Börse. This was almost certainly associated with the advent of Pierer’s annual product publicity stunt — virtually certain victory for one or another of its brands in the Dakar Rally, kicking off across Saudi Arabia’s deserts on New Year’s Day.

JAPAN — DAMAGE LIMITATION

Contradictory behaviour by the Bank of Japan has now stretched to unscheduled purchases of Japanese government bonds, in an attempt to rein in the inflation-generating bond yield surge it had initiated just before Xmas. But traders are blowing holes in the BoJ’s intentions — and competence.

However, market volatility grew calmer, thanks mainly to the seasonal trading slump. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index retreated by only 0.5% this time around and exporter losses grew milder. Suffice to say, though, the denizens of Japan’s industrial might, including motorcycle manufacturers, are not happy bunnies.

INDIA — WELCOMING 2023

The Indian stock market’s casino culture delivered a burst of year-end optimism, shrugging off three weeks of decline through December for no identifiable reason. Mumbai’s BSE Sensex 30 index added 1.7% as leading listed motorcycle manufacturers all reversed recent losses.

CHINA — PROJECTING PROSPERITY

Despite the Covid Omicron variant now being allowed to rampage without restraint throughout Chinese society, Beijing government analysts began to broadcast the potential for an economic turnaround, abandoning travel restrictions and rapidly improving supply-chain bottlenecks.

Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and the blue-chip CSI 300 flipped from weeks of accrued losses to positivity, respectively posting 1.4% and 1.1% gains. The previous week’s grim roster of retreat for indigenous motorcycle producers abruptly vanished, with only three of China’s eleven biker listings still on the back foot.