Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair June was held from June 20th until 23rd at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre for 4 days.
Abenomics effect seemed to fade away since the beginning of June in Japan, and economy started to shift toward to rapid stock plunge, strong yen and weak dollar. The Nikkei Stock Average dropped 870 yen and fell to 12,000 levels on 13th; also Japanese yen became 94 yen against a dollar. Because the surmise for early reduction of monetary easing by the US government became stronger, the currencies of emerging countries were sold and Japanese Yen, which believed as safer assets, was bought. Indian Rupee recorded the lowest against US dollar on 11th. Furthermore Brazilian Real and South African Rand became lowest in 4 years. As a result of studying early reduction of monetary easing by the US government, besides economic recovery, gold price fell down sharply from the anticipation that the assets would move from gold to shares.
Also, short-term interest rates soared from 7% to 13%, just in one day on 20th, in the Chinese financial market. Moreover The People’s Bank of China absorbed the funds of two billion Yuan (about 300 billion yen) from the market to do substantial monetary tightening. This is regarded as a countermeasure against shadow banking. But the risks that affect companies’ finance seem to be very high, and might bring China into economic slump. It seems like that worldwide financial market is in great chaos now.
This jewelry show started in such a recent state. However, just after the show had started on the first day, our booth was crowded with full of customers as usual.Their attitude which scrambled for a product with a focus on regular items was serious and felt even some fear. Because they believed that price would go up in the near future, even though it seemed a little bit expensive than before, products which considered unobtainable in the others were bought without any fear. Pearl seemed to be most popular recently and the Japan pavilion looked more crowded than any other venue.
But diamond was disappointing this time. Business seemed sluggish affected by the Rupee depreciation. Exhibitors from Japan at the diamond pavilion were affected by the rapid appreciation of the yen, and then the loss was considerable. Even though people had scrambled for diamonds one month ago, I felt terrible to see such sudden change caused by the world situation. In spite of the ever-changing situation, there were many customers at our booth. To meet such wonderful customers’ demand, we will continue to strive further more and more. And, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who visited us at this fair.