Hutchison has been a good laggard indicator for a bull run. On five occasions last year, its share price rose at least as much as yesterday. But with the exception of September 11, the Hang Seng Index ended lower on the day the stock rose.

They said another good selling signal was the upward movement of PCCW's market value. We shall find out more about PCCW later this month, a period that brokers caution investors with the saying, 'sell in May and go away.'

Logo logistics

Who says government logos are always dull and boring?

Take a look at the rebranding exercise of the Office of Government Commerce in London, which has sparked roars of laughter worldwide.

Just turn this logo 90 degrees and you'll know why.

The logo designed by London outfit FHD cost Her Majesty's Treasury #14,000 (HK$215,082). An FHD spokesman was quoted by The Sun as saying, 'It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration, we concluded the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters 'OGC' and is not inappropriate to an organisation that's looking to have a firm grip on government spend.'

We also sought comments from Henry Steiner, who designed the HSBC logo, among many other corporate identities. 'Remember, always turn your logos around and check how they look from a different angle,' he said. 'The main takeaway idea from this sad tale - aside from the fact that it's substandard from any angle - is: 'That's what you get for HK$220,000.''

Hard headhunting

Call it the Alibaba dilemma.

Alibaba.com has spent six months looking for a candidate to be its fourth independent non-executive director, but it still hasn't come up with a name.

The reason: 'There are a number of well-experienced candidates in our industry ... but many of these qualified people are either working or are otherwise connected with our competitors, or our company, our parent group or our substantial shareholders of our parent group.'

Perhaps it is lucky that Microsoft dropped its bid for Yahoo, which also owns part of Alibaba.com. Otherwise, the search for talent may take even longer.

Teutonic tightrope

Still with Alibaba.com, yesterday we poked fun at its ad quoting a German named 'Kenneth', a rare Deutsche name. But we also got it wrong.

Lai See wrongly quoted the reader as 'Stephen' Engel, which in fact should have been 'Stephan' Engel. Stephan was gracious enough to tell us he often got mixed up with the Bloomberg anchor in e-mails.

We also called Bloomberg's Mr Engel, who loudly proclaimed, 'I have never been a German and never want to be.'

Rooms with a view

At least two things could excite Deutsche Bank staff, who will move across the harbour in two years.

Their new office, initially occupying 12 floors of ICC, will feature a spectacular gym with a view of Hong Kong Island.

Others are happy to know they have a much bigger resting and chill-out area. The premises are triple the size of the Cheung Kong Center office as the bank also announced that it would be expanding its headcount locally.

Job insecurity

Deutsche Bank is hiring, but Bear Stearns is firing.

We heard that out of the subprime-troubled investment bank's 40 equity analysts in Hong Kong, only one got invited to join JP Morgan, the 'white knight'.

Out of the total 100 staff from the equity desk, no more than four will be transferred to Chater House.

Meanwhile, the staff are waiting to be formally discharged, which could happen in days.