22 December 2020
There has been a growing tsunami of climate commitment announcements combined with fossil fuel exclusion policies by globally significant financial institutions during December 2020, building on the pledges two months earlier by the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea committing to net zero emissions targets.
On top of that, three leading corporate announcements show the building momentum towards a decarbonisation-driven technology disruption. Nippon Steel and POSCO – respectively the largest steel manufacturers in Japan and South Korea – both committed to net zero emissions by 2050 targets over the last ten days.
And Australia’s Lendlease has released a roadmap detailing how it will deliver on its commitment to “Absolute Zero Carbon by 2040”.
China trade war talk hurts ASX news.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
China s industrial production grew 7% year-on-year in November, the country s National Bureau of Statistics announced Tuesday. That was in line with expectations from a Reuters poll. Meanwhile, retail sales in China increased 5% in November as compared with a year ago, missing forecasts for a 5.2% increase by analysts in a Reuters poll.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.17% to close at 26,687.84 while the Topix index slipped 0.47% to finish its trading day at 1,782.05. South Korea s Kospi shed 0.19% to close at 2,756.82.
Shares in Australia were also lower, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.43% to close at 6,631.30. Minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia s December policy meeting released Tuesday warned of the possibility of an extended period of high unemployment as it would take time for output to reach its pre-pandemic level.
By Mark Woodruff
Guide:
The FNArena database tabulates the views of seven major Australian and international stock brokers: Citi, Credit Suisse, Macquarie, Morgan Stanley, Morgans, Ord Minnett and UBS.
For the purpose of broker rating correlation, Outperform and Overweight ratings are grouped as Buy, Neutral is grouped with Hold and Underperform and Underweight are grouped as Sell to provide a Buy/Hold/Sell (B/H/S) ratio.
Ratings, consensus target price and forecast earnings tables are published at the bottom of this report.
Summary
Total Upgrades: 14
Net Ratings Breakdown: Buy 51.14%; Hold 38.96%; Sell 9.90%
For the week ending Friday December 11 there were fourteen upgrades and twenty downgrades to ASX-listed stocks in the FNArena database. Two of the broker upgrades were for Evolution Mining, while Fortescue Metals Group and Lynas Rare Earths received two downgrades apiece.