Asia shares near decade highs, currencies tread water www.reuters.com

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares hovered near decade highs on Monday as strong U.S. economic data and corporate earnings supported global stocks while major currencies held in tight ranges as investors focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s tour of Asia this week.

Trump ramped up his tough rhetoric against North Korea as he kicked off a 12-day Asian trip on Sunday, saying the United States and its allies are prepared to defend freedom.

The U.S. president wants a united front with the leaders of Japan and South Korea before he visits Beijing to make the case to Chinese President Xi Jinping that more needs to be done to rein in Pyongyang. Trump also plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during his trip.

While investors were on edge about the outcome of these high-stake meetings, sentiment has generally been buoyed by upbeat economic data in the United States.

“Global growth is a mature theme, and notably, we have seen real improvement in Europe, while in the U.S. the data is humming along nicely,” said Chris Weston, senior market strategist at I.G. Markets.

U.S. non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to its highest level since 2005, figures out on Friday showed. New orders for U.S.-made goods gained for the second straight month in September and orders for core capital goods surpassed expectations.

“The wash-up after all the data flow was a further belief that the U.S. Federal Reserve can lift rates in December,” said Weston.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was a touch softer at 556.39, but within striking distance of Friday’s top of 557.93 which was the highest since November 2007.

Australian shares traded around levels not seen since April 2015 at 5,956.90 points while Japan's Nikkei .N225 advanced further to a 21-year peak.

Wall Street had a field day again on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI up 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 .SPX gaining 0.31 percent and the Nasdaq .IXIC adding 0.74 percent.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) gave the biggest boost to each of the three indexes after its stronger-than-expected results on Thursday.

Long queues formed outside the company’s stores in Asia and Europe on Friday as fans flocked to buy the new iPhone X, and the U.S. company moved closer to a $1 trillion market capitalization.

U.S. tax reform is also going to be a focus with the House Ways and Means Committee allowing amendments to the bill from Monday, while the Senate is expected to release its own version of the bill on Wednesday.

The degree of differences between the two bills will set the tone in terms of tax reform expectations.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, held near four-month highs, while the euro EUR= trod water to loiter around its lowest since July.

Oil rose to the highest in more than two years after U.S. rig data suggested drilling in the United States would throttle back.

Brent futures LCOc1 were up 24 cents at $62.31 a barrel, the highest since July 2015. U.S. crude CLc1 added 16 cents to 55.80.

Spot gold XAU= was steady at $1269.61 an ounce.

China online shopping: Dishonest websites face fines www.bbc.com

China has created a new law to impose heavy fines on internet shopping websites which publish false advertisements about their products.
Vendors who delete negative online reviews or post fake positive reviews face a minimum $30,000 (£23,000) fine.
The new law aims to clean up China's internet shopping websites just before Singles Day - the country's busiest online shopping day of the year.
Last year's Singles Day saw sales worth almost $18bn (£13.7bn) in 24 hours.
Chinese consumers placed 657 million orders.

Mongolia Strengthens Business Environment with Better Access to Credit for SMEs and Movable Collateral Registry Reforms www.finchannel.com

The FINANCIAL -- Governments in 119 economies carried out 264 business reforms in the past year to create jobs, attract investment and become more competitive, says the World Bank Group’s latest Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs report, which monitors the ease of doing business for small and medium enterprises around the world.

Developing countries carried out 206 reforms, accounting for 78 percent of the total reforms, with Sub-Saharan Africa implementing 83 reforms and South Asia implementing a record 20 reforms. A large number of reforms centered on improving access to credit and registering a new business, with 38 reforms each, as well as facilitating cross border trade, with 33 reforms.

Business reforms continued at speed in East Asia and Pacific, with regional economies adopting 45 reforms during the past year. The region is home to two of the world’s top 10 ranked economies, Singapore and Hong Kong SAR, China, and two of this year’s top 10 improvers, Brunei Darussalam (for a second consecutive year) and Thailand.

Mongolia implemented substantive reforms to boost SME financing through Secured Transactions Reform project. Access to finance is a challenge faced by many Mongolian SMEs, which struggle to obtain bank loans as they do not own land or buildings that banks generally seek as collateral.

To address this issue, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Ministry of Justice have partnered with the Bank of Mongolia, Mongolia Bankers’ Association, and other stakeholders since 2013 to help reform the country’s secured transactions system to unlock affordable financing for SMEs. As part of the reform, a web-based pledge-notice registry was launched in February 2017, enabling creditors to search for existing interests on movable assets that they intend to use as collateral and to file security interest on their approved collaterals. In addition, the IFC-supported Law on Tangible and Intangible Movable Property Pledge went into effect on March 1, 2017. The new law, along with the registry, allows SMEs to offer moveable assets such as accounts receivable, inventory, livestock, equipment, and future income as collateral to banks – a major move to improve access to finance for SMEs. The system also reduces the need for paper documents and notifies creation of pledge-rights to existing and prospective lenders.

To date, around 90,000 pledge-notices have been registered, 38 percent of which is equipment, 24 percent is livestock, 5.4 percent is account receivables, and 2.0 percent is vehicles. Women account for 24 percent of the total borrowers.

“We are very encouraged to see the strong early results from this project” said Tuyen D. Nguyen, IFC Resident Representative in Mongolia. “Mobilizing movable collateral to boost access to finance, especially for MSMEs, can play a significant role in Mongolia’s sustainable economic recovery and job creation.”

In its annual ease of doing business rankings, New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark retained their first, second and third spots, respectively, followed by Republic of Korea; Hong Kong SAR, China; United States; United Kingdom; Norway; Georgia; and Sweden.

This year’s top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken, are Brunei Darussalam; Thailand; Malawi; Kosovo; India; Uzbekistan; Zambia; Nigeria; Djibouti; and El Salvador. For the first time, the group of top 10 improvers includes economies of all income levels and sizes, with half being top improvers for the first time – El Salvador, India, Malawi, Nigeria, and Thailand.

The report also monitors hurdles faced specifically by women in the areas of Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts. This year’s report records a welcome reform by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which eliminated the requirement for women to obtain their husband’s permission to register a business. However, 36 economies continue to place obstacles for women entrepreneurs, with 22 economies imposing additional steps for married women to start a business and 14 limiting women’s ability to own, use and transfer property.

This year’s report includes two case studies on transparency, which analyze data from business registries and land administrations and find that economies with more transparent and accessible information have lower levels of corruption and bribery. A third case study on private sector participation in formulating construction regulation finds that such rules exhibited higher costs and a propensity for conflicts of interest. A fourth case study highlights three successful insolvency reforms in France, Slovenia and Thailand, and lessons that are transferable to other economies.

Gigantic dinosaur-eating plane-size reptile discovered in Mongolia www.foxnews.com

Itools IPO launches www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Primary market order opening and the opening bell ceremony for ITools were successfully organized at the Mongolian Stock Exchange. MSE CEO Kh.Altai, ITools founder A.Battamir, ITools CEO I.Altantulga, Standard Investment Director Ch.Jargal and Mongolian Software Industry Association President J.Tamir were in attendance and struck the MSE's 5588th opening bell.

Mongolia registered 70 new mining deposits www.news.mn

Without doubt, the mining sector is the main pillar of economic growth and development in Mongolia. In recent years, the sector has contributed to approximately 20% of the GDP, approximately 60% to industrial output and about 80% of total exports (World Bank Group).

Kazakhstan-Mongolia business forum held in Ulaanbaatar www.inform.kz

On October 31 - November 1 the Mongol capital hosted the second Kazakhstan-Mongolia business forum "Trade Mission - 2017", Kazinform correspondent reports from China. The event organized by KAZAKH INVEST National Company and the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mongolia with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Mongolia was attended by representatives of 14 Kazakhstani and more than 100 Mongolian companies. Within the framework of the forum, Kazakh businessmen also met with a number of Mongolian officials and potential business partners to discuss the prospects for expanding trade, economic and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Siemens supplies electrical equipment for underground copper mine in Mongolia www.mqworld.com

Siemens is undertaking the engineering, design, production and supply of the electrical equipment for the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine conveyor system. The delivery comprises the new conveyor system with gearless and conventional drives from thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions. The new system extends the existing opencast mining facility and is expected to bring 95,000 tons of copper ore to the surface per day. The conveyor system has to overcome a difference in height of almost 1,400 meters. Initial production is expected to commence in 2020. The order value is in the tens of millions of Euros.

Qualcomm Says Apple Breached Contract on Phone-Chip Software www.bloomberg.com

Qualcomm Inc. has sued Apple Inc., accusing the iPhone maker of failing to abide by the terms of a software license and said it may have used its unprecedented access to that code to help Qualcomm-rival Intel Corp.

November 02, 2017 trading report www.mse.mn

On November 02, 2017, 34,988 shares of 39 firms listed as Tier I, II, and III were traded. 12 firms’ shares increased in price, 10 decreased and 17 remained unchanged. Juulchin Gobi JSC /JGV/ was the top performer, increasing 14.08 percent, whereas Moninjbar JSC /MIB/ was the worst performer, decreasing 4.76 percent.