Japanese shares lost ground this week as investors gave up on further stimulus measures in the US, but there was still hope for a rally after the Easter holiday, analysts said yesterday.
All eyes are on the Bank of Japan and whether it ushers in further easing measures to boost the world’s third-largest economy, they said.
The likelihood of further stimulus increased after a meeting on Friday morning between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, analysts said.
In the week to April 6, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 3.91 percent, or 395.11 points, to end at 9,688.45.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues ended the week down 3.35 percent, or 28.64 points, at 825.71.
Japanese shares were partly dented by minutes from the March US Federal Reserve policy meeting, which indicated no fresh monetary easing measures in the near term.
Sentiment was also hit after Spain said its borrowing costs soared in its first debt auction since an austerity budget last week, fueling concern of a repeat of Greece’s strife last year when it narrowly avoided a default.
However, Mitsuo Shimizu, deputy general manager of investment strategy and information at Cosmo Securities, said: “The eurozone worries will likely recede gradually [next] week and shares could recover their upward momentum” on hopes for more easing measures.
Investors will also keep their eyes on Japanese trade and current account figures next week, as well as US economic data.
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