Asian stocks fell, sending a regional index to its sixth weekly drop in seven weeks, as signs of slowing growth in China and Japan and concern that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening overshadowed improving US data.
In Taiwan, the TAIEX staged a mild technical rebound on Friday from heavy losses seen in the week, but turnover remained at a low level.
Sentiment was cautious although Wall Street recovered overnight, snapping a three-day losing streak after the latest data on jobless benefit claims in the US was better than expected, dealers said.
“Despite the rebound, many investors were still reluctant to chase prices at the moment amid uncertainty over a market outlook,” Mirae Asset Management analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said.
“With no immediate solution to deal with the debt crisis in Europe, I expect more and more investors will retreat from the trading floor,” he added. “Moreover, political uncertainty ahead of the Jan. 14 presidential election is expected to keep the trading volume at lows.”
The weighted index closed up 20.50 points, or 0.30 percent, at 6,785.09 on Friday. The TAIEX retreated 1.6 percent this week, a second consecutive loss.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.3 percent to 112.45 this week after Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings warned that Europe faces lower credit ratings as it struggles to contain its debt crisis. Italy sold 3 billion euros of five-year notes on Wednesday with a yield of 6.47, the most since May, 1997.
The Shanghai Composite Index sank 3.9 percent, extending losses for a sixth week.
Chinese manufacturing may contract for a second month, according to a survey released on Thursday by HSBC and Markit Economics. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.6 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average decreased 1.6 percent this week after the Bank of Japan’s tankan survey showed sentiment among the nation’s largest manufacturers deteriorated. South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 1.9 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slid 1 percent.
The MSCI Asian gauge declined 18.3 percent this year through Friday, dragging valuations of shares in the gauge to 12.6 times estimated earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Financial stocks dropped this week on speculation that a worsening European crisis would hurt banks’ earnings.
India’s SENSEX tumbled to a more than two-year low, despite the central bank’s decision to keep interest rates on hold and indications of possible future cuts.
The 30-share index dropped to 15,425.20 intraday, its lowest since early November, 2009. It recovered to 15,475.75 late on Friday — still down 360.72 points or 2.28 percent.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila gained 0.52 percent, or 22.27 points, from Thursday to close at 4,304.94.
Wellington fell 0.55 percent, or 17.85 points, from Thursday to 3,245.34.
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