Asian stocks rose for the second week this month, as steelmakers led gains, after China refrained from raising interest rates and US data improved.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index climbed 0.4 percent to 133.59 this week. The gauge closed up on three days this week, and rose the most on Monday, after China refrained from raising interest rates to cool inflation, and US reports on consumer confidence, the trade deficit and claims for jobless benefits beat forecasts.
“Fears of an interest rate increase in China have not come to fruition so far,” said Tim Schroeders, who helps manage US$1 billion in Melbourne at Pengana Capital Ltd. “There’s a sense of relief in markets. This may be only temporary as Chinese authorities become increasingly concerned about the possibility of inflationary pressures undermining the economy’s longer-term growth prospects.”
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.9 percent, its seventh straight weekly advance and its longest winning streak since the eight-week period ended April 2. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.4 percent, while South Korea’s KOSPI rose 2 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.9 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.9 percent this week. India’s Sensitive Index rose 1.8 percent. The measure was closed on Friday for a holiday.
While China’s inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in 28 months last month, building the case for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) to raise interest rates, China instead ordered lenders on Dec. 10 to park more money with the central bank to counter the inflation threat.
“The government seems to be using reserve requirements at the moment as a more effective tool,” Hugh Simon, co-manager of the Dreyfus Greater China Fund, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“They need to have some relief about inflation. The market is not expensive,” Simon said.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index has risen 11 percent this year, with stocks on the gauge valued at 14.8 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 23 times at the start of the year.
China will strengthen controls in the real-estate market and curb speculative investment from next year through 2015, Xinhua reported on Thursday, citing China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 35.70, or 0.4 percent, to 8,817.90 at the 1:30pm close of Taipei trading on Friday, marking its fifth day of gains. The benchmark advanced 1.1 percent this week, the fourth week of increases.
“A rise on Wall Street overnight further shored up investor confidence here,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Allen Lin said, referring to a two-year overnight high recorded by US stocks.
“The local bourse, which has been awash in adequate funds, continued momentum largely on the back of foreign institutional investors,” Lin said.
However, the market is likely to encounter resistance ahead of 8,900 points over the next few sessions, Lin said.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila rose 0.44 percent, or 17.93 points, to 4,057.33 after sharp declines the previous two sessions.
Wellington rose 0.94 percent, or 31.34 points, to 3,325.11.
Mumbai was closed for a public holiday.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained