HK to rejoin developed market bourses

HONG KONG • Hong Kong is going to rejoin its developed market peers when it reintroduces a stock-market closing auction after a seven-year gap. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) plans to start the system on July 25, it said yesterday.

Two market rehearsals are planned for next month and in June.

HKEx scrapped its previous auction mechanism in 2009 after HSBC Holdings saw its shares plunge about 10 per cent in the final seconds of the day. The new system comprises a 10-minute trading session and was designed after HKEx officials reviewed about a dozen of their global peers. The city's US$3.9 trillion (S$5.3 trillion) stock market is the last of 22 global developed nations without a closing auction.

BLOOMBERG

Two Apple services blocked in China

BEIJING • Apple's online book and film services have gone dark in China, after Beijing introduced regulations last month imposing strict curbs on online publishing, particularly for foreign firms.

China's media regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, demanded Apple halt the services, the New York Times reported, citing two unnamed people.

"We hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible," said a Beijing-based Apple spokesman.

This is not the first time an Apple service has been made unavailable in China.

People trying to access the company's News app, launched last year, are shown the message "News isn't supported in your current region".

REUTERS