Filed Under : 
SHARE PRICES of all the leading furniture retailers crashed yesterday after Harveys Furnishing, the UK's second-biggest furniture retailer, warned that profits in the current year would be "significantly below market forecasts and below last year's levels". He added: "We have switched part of our foreign reserves into blue chips that have been bought at very good prices."Given that Sir Donald has pushed up the price of the stocks he is buying, this is an unusual assertion. Indeed, he has pushed them up to a level which most analysts believe will only be sustainable if the government continues to make forays into the market.The government has spent more than HK$100bn (pounds 7.6 bn) of its fiscal reserves buying shares in an attempt to thwart speculators who, the government claims, have been taking massive short positions in local shares and creating an atmosphere of weakness.. The move has given holders of Hong Kong equity an opportunity to get out of a market they see as inherently weak.Sir Donald yesterday said it "intends to hold these stocks for a while and they should be a good long-term investment". This makes it difficult for speculators to take positions in the Hongkong dollar without incurring heavy costs from high over-night interest rates.
06/11 - 08/11 Pick up Katy Perry Tickets staging in RBC Center, Rose Garden. Katy Perry is staging in Raleigh, Portland and Santa Barbara. Katy Perry tickets
05/11 - 07/11 Bag Zac Brown Band Tickets playing in Cheyenne Frontier Days, Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre. Zac Brown Band is playing in Cheyenne, Chula Vista and Los Angeles. Zac Brown Band tickets
05/11 - 07/11 Shop for U2 Tickets performing in Invesco Field At Mile High, Lincoln Financial Field. U2 is performing in Denver, Philadelphia and Baltimore. U2 tickets
But by going into the equity markets "to restore order", as the financial secretary Sir Donald Tsang, put it, the government is in effect admitting that the currency board system is not working.NatWest and Woolwich, for example, charge 60p for each transaction.. THE HONG KONG government which is now the biggest single institutional investor in the local stock market, yesterday said it saw its holdings as a "good long-term investment", indicating that part of its foreign reserves could now be held in shares. Under Hong Kong's currency board system, which is used to maintain the US dollar peg, the government is supposed to keep the currency stable by withdrawing liquidity from the foreign exchange market. He said banks decided to discuss what other changes might be made to cash machines.However, Mr Hardy said some banks were likely to continue charging customers for using Link machines.
Britain is one of the only countries in the world without a unified network.The move came out of talks held to discuss the need to update systems to cope with the Millennium Bug, according to a Midland Bank spokesman. Where they can use them, the typical charge is pounds 1.50 per withdrawal.A survey by Mori showed that 77 per cent of all age groups - and 92 per cent of those under 35 - wanted to be able to use any cash machine. Link, including building societies and mortgage banks, has 15,400 machines.Bank customers have generally been blocked from using machines in a rival network. BANK CUSTOMERS will be able to withdraw money from any cash machine in the country by the end of next spring, it emerged yesterday. Link, the cash machine network, revealed three high street banks were in advanced talks on joining Link. The aim is create a unified network of machines for the whole country. Barclays, Lloyds Bank and Midland Bank are planning to become members of Link by the end of May, giving customers access to around 25,000 machines. National Westminster Bank will also become a full member.John Hardy, chief executive of Link, said: "This is a significant move in the expansion of Link and it will create a single national network of cash machines, providing access to virtually all banks and building societies in the UK."The big four high street banks have historically avoided a unified network, choosing instead to use the size of their networks as a way of attracting new customers.Customers with Midland and National Westminster Bank share access to 12,500 machines, while Lloyds and Barclays share a network of 7,600.