Asia's wealthiest woman lost more than half her fortune over the past year as China's real estate sector was rocked by a cash crunch, a billionaire index showed Thursday.

Yang Huiyan, a majority shareholder in Chinese property giant Country Garden, saw her net worth plunge by more than 52 percent to $11.3 billion from $23.7 billion a year ago, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Yang's fortune took a major hit on Wednesday when the Guangdong-based Country Garden's Hong Kong-listed shares fell 15 percent after the company announced it would sell new shares to raise cash.

Yang inherited her wealth when her father -- Country Garden founder Yang Guoqiang -- transferred his shares to her in 2005, according to state media.

She became Asia's richest woman two years later after the developer's initial public offering in Hong Kong.

But she is now barely holding onto that title, with chemical fibres tycoon Fan Hongwei a close runner-up with a net worth of $11.2 billion on Thursday.

Chinese authorities cracked down on excessive debt in the property sector in 2020, leaving major players such as Evergrande and Sunac struggling to make payments and forcing them to renegotiate with creditors as they teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

Buyers across the country, furious at lagging construction and delayed deliveries of their properties, have begun withholding mortgage payments for homes sold before completion.

While Country Garden has remained relatively unscathed by industry turmoil, it spooked investors with a Wednesday announcement that it planned to raise more than $343 million through a share sale, partly to pay debts.

Proceeds from the sale would be used for "refinancing existing offshore indebtedness, general working capital and future development purposes," Country Garden said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China's banking regulator has urged lenders to support the property sector and meet the "reasonable financing needs" of firms as analysts and policymakers fear financial contagion.

The property sector is estimated to account for 18-30 percent of the country's GDP and is a key driver of growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Analysts have warned that the industry is mired in a "vicious cycle" that would further dampen consumer confidence, following the release of dismal Q2 growth figures that were the worst since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Asia, Europe track post-Fed surge on Wall St but caution urged
Hong Kong (AFP) July 28, 2022 - Asian and European markets rose Thursday following a surge on Wall Street fuelled by hopes that the Federal Reserve could slow its pace of inflation-fighting interest rate hikes.

The dollar also struggled to bounce back from a sell-off -- sitting at a three-week low against the yen -- that came in response to comments by Fed chief Jerome Powell suggesting its next super-sized increase could be its last.

However, analysts cautioned that the initial joy, which sent New York's three main indexes soaring, could be short-lived as the global economy continued to face several headwinds and inflation would likely not come down quickly.

As expected, the Fed lifted borrowing costs 75 basis points to a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent, close to the neutral level it considers neither stimulating nor slowing economic growth.

Forecasts have rates going as high as 3.8 percent in 2023, as the bank tries to control runaway inflation.

There is a growing concern that the sharp rise in rates is bearing down on the world's top economy and could send it into recession.

In his post-meeting comments, however, Powell said he did not consider that was the case, because "there are too many areas of the economy that are performing too well".

He did note that growth was slowing.

Powell added that officials would not give any guidance on their next move, instead taking each decision on a meeting-to-meeting basis.

While he said another "unusually large increase could be appropriate" in September and officials "wouldn't hesitate" to lift by one percentage point, markets took heart from the suggestion that the bank was ready to take its foot off the gas towards the end of the year.

On Wall Street, the Dow and S&P rallied and the Nasdaq soared more than four percent -- its best one-day rise since late 2020 -- as tech firms caught a wave of optimism. The sector is more susceptible to higher rates.

And Asia followed suit, though with more muted gains.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Mumbai, Manila, Jakarta and Wellington were also well in the green.

But Hong Kong dipped as the city's de facto central bank followed the Fed in lifting rates owing to its currency peg.

London, Paris and Frankfurt were up in the morning.

The prospect of a slower pace of rate hikes weighed on the dollar against most other currencies, and on Thursday it hit its lowest level against the yen since July 6.

There was a warning that the positive mood likely will not last, however.

"This market move is the victory of hope over experience," Jeffrey Rosenberg, at BlackRock Inc, told Bloomberg Television. "I'd be a little bit cautious here."

And Citigroup's Andrew Hollenhorst and Veronica Clark added that traders appeared to be misjudging Powell's remarks.

"We read Chair Powell's press conference as more hawkish than the market's interpretation," they said, adding that inflation readings excluding food and energy will "push the Fed to hike more aggressively than they or markets anticipate".

All eyes are now on the release of second-quarter growth data later Thursday. After a 1.6 percent contraction in the previous three months, another negative reading would put the economy into a technical recession.

An expected phone call between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will also be high on the agenda for investors as the world's superpowers try to navigate a period of rising tensions. Updates on US tariffs and Taiwan will be among the main areas of focus.

Oil prices rose after data showed a big drop in US stockpiles, while Powell's comments on the economy eased recession concerns and the weaker dollar made the commodity cheaper for buyers with other currencies.

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Most markets rise as traders prepare for Fed meeting
Hong Kong (AFP) July 27, 2022
Stocks mostly rose Wednesday, rebounding from an early sell-off thanks to earnings from top US tech giants that eased concerns about consumer demand. The reports from Wall Street titans including Microsoft and Alphabet helped soothe anxiety ahead of an expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike. The day started slowly following a steep drop on Wall Street fuelled by concerns that four-decade high inflation and rising borrowing costs were keeping Americans from spending, and pushing the economy ... read more