Organized by the Finance Management Committee of The Hong Kong Management Association, a luncheon talk on "Which Way the Market?" was held on Monday, 21 January 2002.

In this annual fellowship luncheon talk, the panelists discussed with participants their views on major currency and interest rate movements, oil price, state of US economy, Wall Street and China, and the likely ramifications for Hong Kong business and the stock market in the year ahead. They also made forecasts on the value of the US$ against the Yen, Pound, Euro, HK$, the price of major commodities such as gold per ounce and oil per barrel and the Hang Seng Index.

The three speakers were: Mr Ian Perkin, Assistant Director/Chief Economist of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Mr Jake van der Kamp, Financial Columnist of South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd and Mr Stephen Brown, Head of Research of Kim Eng Securities.

Following is a table on the closing prices as at 31 December 2001 and the forecasts at the end of this year by the speakers:

			EURO	HK$	Oil	Gold	HSI
Actual Closing Prices as at 31 December 2001	131.14	1.45	0.8858	7.79	19.7	279	11,397
21 January 2002 Forecast For Closing Prices as at 31 December 2002
Mr Ian Perkin	128	1.48	0.92	7.79	21	290	12,500
Mr Jake van der Kamp	150	1.45	0.95	7.8	22	250	14,000
Mr Stephen Brown	125	1.35	0.95	7.8	18	260-270	16,000

Issued by The Hong Kong Management Association on 21 January 2002.

For press enquiries, please contact Ms Titania Woo on 2826 0535/7383 5116 or Ms Sunnie Ma on 2826 0532.

For press enquiries, please contact Ms Titania Woo on 2826 0535/7383 5116 or Ms Sunnie Ma on 2826 0532.