A snapshot of bike and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 7 April 2023. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — FRAGILE MOOD
In a trading week foreshortened by Good Friday’s crucifixion festival, New York market indices were restrained by a number of inter-active influences. Weak US private sector employment growth suggested that the labour market in the world’s biggest economy is indeed cooling, presaging recessionary pressure that many analysts believe is necessary to put the lid on inflation without recourse to any further interest rate rises — and hopefully see those rates coming down. At the same time, US bank shares continued to decline, as investors remained on edge after the recent American-Swiss banking liquidity crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average managed a solitary 0.6% gain across four sessions. S&P’s MidCap 400 was worst performer, finishing 2.6% in arrears, while the blue-chip S&P 500 suffered a marginal 0.1% loss. Tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite sentiment, reacting to big workforce reductions by the likes of Amazon and Facebook parent Meta, sank by 1.1%.
Harley-Davidson returned to negativity, following the previous week’s brief respite, but was paralleled in misfortune by every other biker-related stock, spanning both petrolhead and EV proclivities.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 36.50 | -3.8% | -8.2% |
| Polaris Industries | 102.88 | -7% | -7.7% |
| Textron | 67.71 | -4.1% | -2.2% |
| Ideanomics (Energica) | 0.10 | -9.1% | N/A |
| Niu Technologies | 3.67 | -11.4% | +1.9% |
| LiveWire | 6.45 | N/A | -4.7% |
EUROPE — BIBLE BASHED
Investment enthusiasm was also scarce across leading European markets, which suspended activities for God-bothering purposes on Friday too. In Germany, Frankfurt’s Dax Performance index posted a minor 0.2% weekly decline, with both its major motorcycle-related automotives retreating by larger increments. In adjacent Austria, the Wiener Börse ATV dropped a bit more, 0.4% down, and KTM parent Pierer fell further. However, the Italian FTSE MIB in Milan stayed positive by 0.4%. And local PTW flag carrier Piaggio climbed back above a four-euro watershed.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 98.62 | -2.3% | +0.3% |
| Volkswagen | 152.75 | -3.3% | -12.6% |
| Pierer Mobility | 78.60 | -1.3% | -6.5% |
| Piaggio Group | 4.06 | +3.3% | +1.5% |
JAPAN — BAD NEWS ON THE DOORSTEP
Easter bunnies and nailing people to crosses don’t figure large (or at all) in the Shinto religion. So Japanese investors worked normal hours, disturbed only by heightened regional tensions owing to enhanced Chinese sabre-rattling in Taiwan. Immediate response to such worries wiped 1.9% off Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index. Every motorcycle manufacturer suffered a bite out of its share-price cherry.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 3478 | -0.9% | -3.7% |
| Yamaha | 3300 | -4.6% | -8.3% |
| Suzuki | 4661 | -3% | -4.7% |
| Kawasaki | 2860 | -1.2% | -4.7% |
INDIA — THE JOKE’S ON HONDA
Upbeat indicators continue to boost Indian investor sentiment pivoting around the fiscal year-end. Mumbai’s BSE Sensex 30 index flaunted firm positivity for a second consecutive week, rising by 1.4%, and listed indigenous motorcycle manufacturing majors matched the mood with another clean sweep of gains. Only disruptive factor was a substantial slump in wholesale bike shipments for Honda’s wholly-owned subsidiary HMSI during March. No doubt that would have simply generated amusement for local competitors, though.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 2423.00 | +3.2% | -0.7% |
| Bajaj Auto | 4033.30 | +3.8% | +5.5% |
| TVS Motor | 1097.00 | +1.8% | +2.3% |
| Eicher Motors | 2965.00 | +0.5% | -4.8% |
| Mahindra | 1171.95 | +1.1% | -4.5% |
CHINA — PRESIDENTIAL LOVE
The spectacle of French President Emmanuel Macron kissing the fundament of Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Beijing went a long way to relaxing tensions over the latter’s overly-close relationship with Vladimir Putin, not to mention providing a welcome booster for the occasionally fraught import-export relationship between the EU and China.
Market indices responded accordingly. Shanghai’s SSE Composite and the blue-chip CSI 300 spanning Shanghai and Shenzhen respectively stacked on 1.7% and 1.8% weekly advances. However, biker stocks really didn’t join the party. Out of eleven contenders, nine were losers. Only Communist Party stooge CETC and Honda JV partner Sundiro bucked this depressive trend.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 22.25 | -4.8% | -6% |
| Zongshen | 6.64 | -9.9% | -2.9% |
| Sundiro | 2.18 | +1.9% | -3.5% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 16.77 | +5.9% | +13.1% |
| Lifan | 3.67 | -3.7% | -6.1% |
| Loncin | 5.00 | -3.1% | -1.2% |
| Linhai | 8.43 | -4.6% | -8.7% |
| Guangzhou Auto | 11.06 | -0.7% | -0.3% |
| CFMoto | 123.56 | -2% | -7.7% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 19.53 | -4.4% | +0.5% |
| Currency:Â HK dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Jianshe | 4.59 | -1.5% | -3.8% |