A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 27 December 2024. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — TRUNCATED TRADING ACTIVITY
Apart from the Far East, where Christmas is largely ignored, stock markets closed their doors altogether for the peak seasonal holiday. And in the US, activity either side of the key date was extremely thin all week. Desultory market indices reflected this lack of interest.
S&P 500 blue-chips barely budged, just 0.7% up, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added only 0.4%. S&P’s MidCap 400 put on 0.5%. Leading MidCap biker stocks therein — Harley-Davidson, Polaris and Harley’s electric spin-off LiveWire — lost ground. There was a bit more life in the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite, which rose by 1%. And NASDAQ-listed electric delivery scooter brand made an above-average gain.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 30.28 | -1.5% | -9.5% |
| Polaris Industries | 57.43 | -0.7% | -15.9% |
| Textron | 77.21 | +0.5% | -9.8% |
| Niu Technologies | 1.89 | +7.4% | +1.6% |
| LiveWire | 4.56 | -11.6% | -24% |
EUROPE — COULDN’T BE BOTHERED
European stocks and indices were pretty static too. The Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt only opened for two days of limited trading in the entire Xmas week and its Xetra Dax index registered just a 0.3% weekly rise. The Borsa Italiana in Milan enjoyed a two-day week as well. But brokers there worked a bit harder, pushing their FTSE MIB index up by 0.9%.
The real fun and games were to be found in Austria’s two-day trading burst, as the Wiener Börse ATX climbed by 1.1%. Rumours about “white knight” bale-outs for bankrupt KTM parent Pierer Mobility, originally pronounced Ready to Race by a somewhat unlikely potential intervention from US investment bank Citigroup a few days earlier, abounded. Since Pierer’s slump into administration and penury, its still-pathetic share price has now more than doubled in value during the past month.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 78.34 | +1% | +11.9% |
| Volkswagen | 91.35 | +0.8% | +9.5% |
| Pierer Mobility | 20.30 | +36.7% | +113.7% |
| Piaggio Group | 2.16 | +2.9% | +6.4% |
JAPAN — HONDA GETS THE HOLESHOT
Tokyo and Osaka’s Nikkei 225 market index staged a terrific 4.1% upwards surge, unhindered by all the Christian nonsense taking place elsewhere. The most notable element in this stock action was confirmation that Honda was indeed negotiating to swallow Nissan — with a target of creating the world’s third biggest automotive entity focused on elbowing the Chinese (and probably Tesla too) out of EV supremacy. After a bit of dithering, Japanese investors got on board with unbridled enthusiasm, and Honda’s share price went truly ballistic. Inevitably, Nissan shares tanked in parallel.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1531 | +24.5% | +18.5% |
| Yamaha | 1418 | +1.4% | +9% |
| Suzuki | 1794 | +3.3% | +13.1% |
| Kawasaki | 7422 | +13.8% | +34.1% |
INDIA — SAFETY IN NUMBER CRUNCHING
Mumbai’s S&P BSE Sensex 30 and the NSE Nifty 50 market indices staggered back into positivity, displaying respective 0.8% and 1% gains after the previous week’s knee-jerk losses. Investors also benefited from a solitary token day off to do a spot of Jesus-bothering, should they be thus inclined. Indigenous motorcycle manufacturers were also mostly calmed by sound Q3 sales data now emerging. The exception was market leader Hero, which suffered a weak quarter and now has Honda’s wholly-owned HMSI subsidiary breathing down its neck.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 4237.95 | -2.4% | -11% |
| Bajaj Auto | 8928.30 | +1.6% | -1.2% |
| TVS Motor | 2420.35 | +1.2% | -0.6% |
| Eicher Motors | 4876.90 | +3% | +0.9% |
| Mahindra | 3049.45 | +4.9% | +2.8% |
CHINA — DO THEY KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS? NOPE
Some slightly better economic news energised Chinese markets. Both Shanghai’s SSE Composite and the Shanghai-Shenzhen CSI indices recovered, respectively rising by 1% and 1.4%. Seven of China’s ten listed motorcycle producers added value.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 18.43 | +6.5% | +11.8% |
| Zongshen | 26.16 | +1.4% | -7.7% |
| Sundiro | 3.59 | +4.1% | -4.8% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 13.82 | -5.5% | +1.3% |
| Lifan | 7.26 | +2.1% | +3% |
| Loncin | 8.55 | +1.4% | +8.8% |
| Linhai | 9.18 | -9.6% | -3.6% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 9.44 | +0.5% | +6.8% |
| CFMoto | 154.00 | +2.7% | +5.7% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 10.91 | -6.4% | -1.3% |