Asian stocks fell this week, with the regional benchmark index snapping its longest-ever weekly winning streak, after China cut its economic growth target. Shares pared losses in the last two days of the week as Greece clinched a debt-swap deal seen as key to containing Europe’s crisis.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 1 percent to 126.90 this week, ending an 11-week winning streak. The measure entered a bull market on Feb. 29, gaining more than 20 percent from a low recorded on Oct. 5 last year, after U.S. economic optimism and monetary easing in Europe, Japan and China fueled the fastest rally in more than two years.
The MSCI All-Country World Index has surged 91 percent from a low reached on March 9, 2009, amid deepening global recession.
Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 0.47 percent, or 37.17 points, to 8,021.73 this week, with Hon Hai (鴻海精密) adding 0.5 percent to NT$101.5 while Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) was 0.33 percent lower at NT$91.3.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 1.6 percent, extending its rally this year as a weaker yen boosted the outlook for exporters. The gauge also climbed after a report showed Japan’s economy contracted less than initially estimated in the fourth quarter of last year. The index on Friday surged above 10,000 for the first time since Aug. 1 last year. Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9 percent after China trimmed its economic growth target to 7.5 percent from an 8 percent goal in place since 2005. Separately, the nation’s inflation eased to the slowest pace in 20 months last month, a report showed on Friday.
“The market is digesting its gains over the past few months and consolidating,” said Khiem Do, the Hong Kong-based head of Asian multi-asset strategy at Baring Asset Management (Asia) Ltd, which oversees about US$10 billion. “China is slowing down and the US is growing, but at a modest pace.”
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.2 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland Chinese companies declined 4.1 percent.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.8 percent as the central bank left borrowing costs unchanged for a ninth straight month.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.4 percent after the economy expanded 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, half the pace economists estimated.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila gained 0.49 percent, or 24.52 points, from Thursday to 4,980.71.
Wellington closed 0.59 percent, or 20.03 points, higher at 3,433.82.
Mumbai jumped 357.72 points or 2.09 percent to 17,503.24, snapping three days of losses, led by buying in index heavyweights.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six