Asian stocks rose for the fourth week in five as US housing starts gained and companies reported earnings that beat estimates, boosting confidence in global growth.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 2.2 percent to 138.83 this week, the biggest weekly gain since last month. The gauge fell last week as China’s inflation rose faster than estimated and the IMF cut growth forecasts for the US and Japan.
“US companies, especially tech stocks, are doing well, and that’s helping to instill confidence,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about US$600 million in assets in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “Investors are looking to take a little bit more risk.”
Stock markets in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka were closed on Friday for holidays.
Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 11.78 points on Friday to end at 8,969.43, capping off a total run of 251.31 points, or 2.9 percent, for the week.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 1.8 percent this week, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 1.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 1 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.5 percent. China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index slid 1.3 percent on concern the government will tighten monetary policy to rein in inflation.
James Hardie Industries SE, the largest seller of home siding in the US, rose 4.2 percent to A$6.20 in Sydney after the US Department of Commerce said housing starts increased 7.2 percent last month from the previous month.
“The economy is in a sustainable recovery,” said Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St Petersburg, Florida, who helps manage US$275 billion. “Earnings are going to continue to surprise on the plus side.”
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd (中國聯通), China’s second-largest mobile phone company, surged 7.5 percent to HK$16.12 in Hong Kong. China’s newly added 3G mobile phone users rose 27.5 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, according to a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure