Asian stocks fell yesterday, led by commodity producers and industrial companies, as the worsening global recession drives down demand for raw materials.
Rio Tinto Group slumped 6 percent after shelving a US$2.15 billion expansion of an iron ore mine in Brazil. Keppel Corp, the world’s biggest oil rig builder, tumbled 7.3 percent following the cancellation of a US$405 million rig order. PetroChina Co (中石油) declined 3.9 percent as crude oil fell for a fifth day and US unemployment jumped.
“The global economy is continuing to deteriorate,” said Rob Patterson, who manages about US$2 billion at Argo Investments Ltd in Adelaide.
“If the US economy is slowing, it means they’re importing less from countries like China, and that China is buying fewer commodities. It’s not helpful to anyone,” he said.
The MSCI AC Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index fell 2.8 percent to 240.56 at 3:19pm in Hong Kong, extending a three-day, 4.9 percent drop. All 10 industry groups retreated. The index has lost 2.9 percent this year, building on a 53 percent drop in 2008.
Japan’s markets are closed for a holiday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 1.4 percent. The Kospi Index dropped 2.1 percent in South Korea, where Hyundai Motor Co slid 3.3 percent after planning to cut production. Wipro Ltd plunged 8.6 percent, leading declines in India, after the World Bank said the software exporter is barred from working for the institution.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 2.1 percent on Friday, capping the worst week since November, after a government report showed the jobless rate climbed to 7.2 percent in December, more than economist estimates. Futures on the S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent yesterday.
Steel mills in Asia, Europe and North America are cutting purchases of raw materials as car manufacturers reduce output and companies cancel orders to build ships and offshore platforms.
Hyundai Motor said late on Friday it plans to cut first-quarter vehicle production in South Korea by as much as 30 percent amid plunging auto demand locally and overseas. The stock lost 3.3 percent to 45,150 won.
Keppel dropped 7.3 percent to S$4.56 after Scorpion Offshore Ltd terminated a US$405 million oil rig order. The company is also discussing a settlement with Lewek Shipping Pte for cancellation of a separate order.
Cosco Corp Singapore Ltd slipped 6.3 percent to S$0.82 after India’s Great Eastern Shipping Co. scrapped orders for two bulk carriers due to “the current uncertain business environment.” It is the second order cancellation for Cosco in a month.
Oil producers slumped as crude oil fell for a fifth day in New York, extending last week’s 12 percent drop, on concern demand will decline more rapidly than the OPEC cuts output. Crude for February delivery lost as much as 1.7 percent to US$40.15 a barrel in after-hours trading in New York.
PetroChina, China’s largest oil company, dropped 4.8 percent to HK$6.68. China Oilfield Services Ltd, a unit of the nation’s largest offshore oil producer, slumped 6.6 percent to HK$5.85.
PT Bumi Resources, Asia’s largest power-station coal exporter, fell 9.5 percent to 570 rupiah, capping a five-day, 39 percent plunge. Indonesia regulators said they will review Bumi’s takeover of three companies last week. The acquisitions sparked analyst downgrades on concern the company is overpaying.
China Eastern Airline Corp (中國東方航空), the nation’s third-largest carrier by fleet size, slumped 7.1 percent to HK$1.04 in Hong Kong, after the carrier said it lost about 6.2 billion yuan (US$906 million) on fuel hedging contracts last year.
PT Bumi Resources, Asia’s largest power-station coal exporter, fell 9.5 percent to 570 rupiah, extending a four-day, 33 percent plunge. Indonesia regulators said they will review Bumi’s takeover of three companies last week. The acquisitions sparked analyst downgrades on concern the company is overpaying.
Sun Hung Kai Properties (新鴻基地產集團), Hong Kong’s biggest developer by market value, dropped 2.4 percent to HK$68.35.
Wipro, India’s third-largest software exporter, plunged 8.6 percent to 229.35 rupees. The company is barred from World Bank contracts for four years from June 2007 for providing “improper benefits” to the bank’s staff, according to a statement on its Web site.
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
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day