Stocks in Asia excluding Japan will remain in a “sweet spot” for the next two quarters, with a benchmark index poised to rise 18 percent, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
The MSCI Asia excluding Japan Index may rise to 522 in the next year, helped by an economic recovery, the levels of cash available, “accommodative” policies and the weak US dollar, analyst Niklas Olausson wrote in a report.
South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were upgraded to “overweight,” while markets in China and the Philippines had their ratings lowered, he added.
The MSCI Asia excluding Japan Index fell 1.1 percent to 443.63 as of 10:17am in Singapore. The measure has rallied 54 percent this year, helped by speculation that the worst of the global financial crisis has passed.
“Near term, there is potential for indexes to exceed our target as expectations for the 2010 recovery accelerate,” Olausson wrote in Friday’s report. “The region should remain in the sweet spot for the next two quarters.”
The US will grow at a 2.9 percent annual rate this quarter, pulling the economy out from its worst slump since the 1930s, according to the median of 61 estimates in a monthly Bloomberg News survey. France, Germany and Brazil are among nations that have already emerged from recession.
“Despite concerns about inflation and policy tightening, Asia remains near the sweet spot of the cycle for stocks, currencies and corporate credit,” said economists led by TJ Bond at Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch unit in a report on Friday. “Over the next two to three quarters, we expect growth to accelerate.”
South Korea is Deutsche Bank’s top pick in Asia given the earnings outlook for exporters and the market’s valuations, according to the report. The brokerage is “bullish” on Samsung Electronics Co, LG Corp, Korea Exchange Bank and LG Chem Ltd.
Deutsche Bank downgraded China to “neutral,” citing a slowdown in the nation’s economic recovery and concerns of a tightening in fiscal and monetary policy. Thailand was raised to “neutral,” while the Philippines was cut to “underweight,” the analyst added.
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