[I-bank focus]HK Central office rents bottom - Macquarie

    Macquarie Research believes that Hong Kong Central office rents have bottomed after seven consecutive quarters of decline of 17% and three subsequent quarters of consolidation in the past ten quarters.
  The leading demand indicators for Central office space have strengthened with improving hiring intentions, declining unemployment rate and rebounding HSI, it added.
  Macquarie expects Central office spot rent to grow 3% in CY2014 and accelerate to 6% in CY2015. Hong Kong retail sales growth has moderated to 6.6% in January and February 2014 due to a high base and is likely to moderate further.
  However, positive growth of 4.5% in CY2014 and 3% in CY2015 should be underpinned by solid Mainland tourist arrivals growth. Macquarie has made subtle valuation downgrades for most stocks as follows: 

  Name                    Rating          Target Price
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Wharf (00004)           Outperform      HK$66.96 (from HK$73.40)
  Swire Props (01972)     Outperform      HK$23.60 (from HK$23.90)
  Hang Lung Props (00101) Neutral         HK$21.90 (from HK$22.60)
  Great Eagle (00041)     Outperform      HK$30.34 (from HK$30.61)
  Hysan Dev (00014)       Outperform      HK$36.21 (from HK$36.60)
  The Link REIT (00823)   Outperform      HK$41.24 (unchanged)
  Fortune REIT (00778)    Neutral         HK$6.24  (from HK$6.23)
  Prosperity REIT (00808) Outperform      HK$2.49  (from HK$2.54)
  Champion REIT (02778)   Underperform    HK$2.90  (from HK$2.94)
  Sunlight REIT (00435)   Outperform      HK$3.42  (from HK$3.34)
  Yuexiu REIT (00405)     Outperform      HK$3.89  (from HK$3.90)
  Hui Xian REIT (87001)   Outperform      HK$3.87  (from HK$4.09)