Japan's benchmark stock indexes are half a day away from recording their sixth annual losses in seven years. For most other Asian markets, the year's declines will take longer to measure.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has dropped 17 percent this year to its lowest reading since March 1983. The broader TOPIX index has declined 18 percent, wiping out Japanese yen 52 trillion (US$433 billion) in market value. Both indexes last had annual gains in 1999.
"This has been the longest down market," said Paul Chesson, who helps manage US$1.6 billion in Japanese equities at Perpetual Investment Management Co in the UK and has invested in the region since 1990.
Singapore stocks may fall next week as higher office vacancy rates hurt CapitaLand Ltd and Keppel Land Ltd, the city-state's two worst-performing property stocks this year. The Straits Times Index, down 17 percent this year, is headed for its fifth annual decline in six years.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index is about to reach the same milestone as the Straits Times. Benchmarks in South Korea and Taiwan are about to complete their second losing year in three.
Japan's stock market shuts this afternoon for a weeklong holiday and will resume trading on Jan. 6. Most other stock markets in Asia are closed for at least one day next week. Only India's market is open on New Year's Day.
This year's trading has already ended in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, where stock markets are closed Monday and Tuesday. Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index rose 8.4 percent this year. The Philippine Composite Index dropped 13 percent, and the Stock Exchange of Thailand Index gained 17 percent.
In Japan, some investors are sticking with companies that generate steady earnings and dividends even as the economy slows.
Growth slid to 0.8 percent in the third quarter from 0.9 percent, and the government forecast the economy will expand 0.6 percent in the fiscal year starting April 1.
Chesson said he intends to keep his stakes in "primarily defensive" industries such as railways, utilities, tobacco and food. He also favors exporters such as Mabuchi Motor Co, a maker of digital-camera parts that has "exhibited a pretty low level of volatility through economic swings."
Singapore's CapitaLand has dropped 41 percent this year, and Keppel Land has tumbled 43 percent. Both companies are among the island-state's largest landlords.
The office vacancy rate climbed to 16 percent this year from 11 percent last year as new buildings were constructed amid falling demand, the Business Times reported, citing figures from property consultant CB Richard Ellis.
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許半導體), whose 83 percent decline this year was the steepest among companies in the Straits Times index, may fall amid concern that US demand for DVD players, personal computers and cellular phones may not rise.
Retailers in the US, the biggest market for Singapore manufacturers, offered discounts of up to 75 percent to entice after-Christmas shoppers in what may be the worst holiday shopping season in more than three decades.
Even so, Hong Kong-based exporters such as Li & Fung Ltd and Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd may rise, helping to trim the Hang Seng's 17 percent loss this year. The government said Friday that exports rose at the fastest pace in 25 months in November.
Li & Fung (
"The trend is Hong Kong trade will maintain strong growth in coming months," said Joe Lo, an economist at Citibank. Exports rose 17.3 percent in November, exceeding October's 12.9 percent growth and the median 16 percent forecast of five economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Sun Hung Kai Properties Co (
Last month, Sun Hung Kai offered as much as HK$3.4 billion (US$436 million) for the 70 percent of SmarTone's shares it doesn't already own. BT, which owns a 20 percent stake, has to decide by Tuesday whether it will take part.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, the largest company by market value within the benchmark KOSPI index, may advance.
Regulators are likely to raise a limit on shareholdings by domestic index funds as of Thursday.
Managers of index funds tracking the KOSPI may be able to lift holdings of Samsung Electronics to 19.5 percent of assets from 18.3 percent, some investors said. The limit, revised twice each year, reflects the stock's average weight in the index for the past six months.
For the year, the KOSPI has lost 5.3 percent even though Samsung Electronics' share price has climbed by about a fifth.
Taiwan's Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (
Compeq Manufacturing Co (
Compeq supplies boards that connect the chips in cell phones with color screens to Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc., the world's largest mobile phone makers.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange Index has dropped 18 percent and its most valuable company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), has tumbled 43 percent.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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