TAIPEI CALLS FOR MARKET SUPPORT
一些亚洲经济体拟巨资救市
Monday, June 30, 2008
Several Asian countries are looking at spending billions of dollars on shares to support plunging stock markets in a move likely to be welcomed by global investors who fear emerging markets may be about to suffer further dramatic falls.
一些亚洲国家的政府正在考虑向股市投入巨款，以求扭转股市跌势，此举可能得到全球投资者的欢迎，这些投资者担心新兴市场即将遭受进一步大幅下挫。
The development follows a 13 per cent fall this year in the MSCI Asia Pacific index, which looks as though it will end the month today with its worst first-half performance since 1992, when it sank by 23 per cent as the Japanese economic bubble deflated.
出现这一最新动向之前，摩根士丹利资本国际亚太指数(MSCI Asia Pacific index)今年下滑13%，看来将在今天以1992年以来最糟糕的上半年表现告别6月份，1992年，随着日本经济泡沫破灭，该指数大跌23%。
Government officials in Taipei, where the local market dropped to a five-month low on Friday, said the cabinet had called on government pension and insurance funds to buy more domestic shares and to hold their investments for a longer period.
台湾股市在上周五跌至五个月来的最低位。台北政府官员表示，内阁已呼吁政府旗下的养老金和保险基金买入更多本土股票，并延长其持有这些投资的时间。
Economic and financial ministers and central bank officials met over the weekend to discuss how to boost investor confidence.
主管经济和金融事务的部长级官员和央行官员周末开会，讨论如何提振投资者信心。
They stopped short, for now, of ordering the use of a T$500bn ($16.4bn) National Stabilisation Fund designed to support markets in times of volatility caused by non-economic events. However, the board of the fund, which was last used during political turmoil after the 2004 presidential election, will meet again on Friday.
就目前而言，他们尚未下令动用5000亿台币（164亿美元）的国家金融安定基金，该基金的设置宗旨，是在非经济事件引发市场失序的情况下支持市场。不过，该基金的管理委员会将在周五再次开会。台湾曾在2004年总统大选后政局动荡期间动用该基金。
In Vietnam, state media reported that the stock exchange and securities regulator was setting up a stabilisation fund to support a market that has lost nearly two-thirds of its value this year as inflation surged.
在越南，官方媒体报道称，证交所和证券监管机构正在建立一只稳定基金，以支持市场。随着通胀飙升，越南股市今年已蒸发近三分之二的价值。
And in Pakistan, the Karachi Stock Exchange is coming under increasing pressure to use a Rp30bn ($442m) stabilisation fund set up last week for use in “volatile circumstances”. Karachi had one of the hottest stock markets in the world in 2007, but its loss of nearly one-third in value since April has created “systemic risk”, the KSE said.
在巴基斯坦，卡拉奇证交所正承受着越来越大的压力，要求其动用一只300亿卢比（4.42亿美元）的稳定基金，该基金是在上周建立的，旨在用于“动荡情况”。卡拉奇股市是2007年表现最红火的股市之一，但卡拉奇证交所(KSE)表示，自今年4月以来蒸发近三分之一价值，意味着已经产生了“系统性风险”。
Official intervention to support share prices has a long history in Asia. One of the most successful examples was in 1998, when the Hong Kong government bought shares in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis to support the value of the assets backing the territory's currency, which is pegged to the dollar.
官方出手扶持股价的做法，在亚洲由来已久。最成功的例子之一是在1998年，香港政府在亚洲金融危机发生后入市，买入股票，以支持作为港币支柱的资产价值。港币汇率盯住美元。
Japan started to intervene in the stock market in 1991 after prices halved after the “bubble economy” burst. Interventions continued for several years, but more than a decade later the Nikkei average is only worth a third of its value in 1989.
日本在1991年开始干预股市，此前股市价值在“泡沫经济”破灭后已经减半。各种干预持续了数年，但10多年后，日经指数(Nikkei)仍只有1989年水平的三分之一。
“The success [of official support] depends on one thing only: how cheap the market is,” said Khiem Do, head of multi-asset at Baring Asset Management in Hong Kong. “The price-earnings ratio has ideally to be below 10 times, or no higher than the mid-teens, and then you have some chance of it working.”
“(官方支持)成功与否，仅取决于一个因素：市场已跌至何等低位，”香港霸菱资产管理(Baring Asset Management)多元资产投资部主管杜敬创(Khiem Do)表示。“理想情况下，市盈率应低于10倍，或至少不高于15、16，这样才有机会成功。”
Taiwan is currently trading at around 11 times forecast profits, Pakistan at 14 and Vietnam at around 10, he said.
台湾股市目前水平约为预报利润的11倍，巴基斯坦股市约为14倍，越南股市约为10倍，他说。