Asian stocks fell this week, with the regional index erasing the month’s gains, as companies including Fanuc Corp and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd reported earnings that missed estimates amid global growth concerns.
Fanuc, an industrial robots maker, slid 5.4 percent in Tokyo, while China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通), China’s No. 2 cellphone firm, sank 5.8 percent in Hong Kong. Tohoku Electric Power Co plunged 21 percent, leading declines among Japanese utilities on concern higher fuel prices will crimp earnings. Jupiter Telecommunications Co jumped 31 percent in Osaka as KDDI Corp and Sumitomo Corp offered as much as ¥216 billion (US$2.7 billion) to buy the rest of the company.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.6 percent this week to 121.54, paring the measure’s rebound from a June 4 low to less than 12 percent. Shares had risen as central banks in Europe, the US and China added stimulus to prop up growth.
“External factors such as the European debt crisis and the US elections are still the biggest risks for the market,” said Angus Gluskie, managing director at White Funds Management in Sydney, which manages more than US$350 million. “Earnings are hostage to these macroeconomic factors.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index traded at 12.9 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 13.5 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 12.1 for the STOXX Europe 600 Index.
Taiwan’s TAIEX slid 3.7 percent this week to 7,134.06, down from 7,408.76 on Oct. 19, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.9 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index retreated 2.2 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.8 percent even as the yen closed on Thursday at below 80 to the US dollar for the first time since June.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was little changed for the week after snapping on Friday its longest streak of gains since 2006.
South Korea’s KOSPI sank 2.7 percent after Bank of Korea data on Thursday showed the nation’s GDP expanded 1.6 percent in the three months to last month from a year earlier, the slowest in three years.
Of the 134 MSCI Asia Pacific Index members that reported earnings by 5:30pm on Friday, and for which Bloomberg News had estimates, about 58 percent fell short of projections.
Canon Inc, the world’s largest camera maker, fell 3.4 percent to ¥2,560 in Tokyo.
China Unicom retreated 5.8 percent through the week in Hong Kong after third-quarter net income rose 27 percent to 2.02 billion yuan (US$324 million).
Among stocks that rose after reporting earnings, Macquarie Group Ltd, Australia’s largest investment bank, advanced 3.5 percent to A$30.85 after saying its first-half profit increased 18 percent from a year earlier on increased earnings from its fixed-income, currency and commodity trading businesses.
In other markets on Friday:
Wellington closed down, falling 0.17 percent, or 6.71 points, from Thursday to 3,983.78.
Mumbai fell 0.71 percent, or 133.29 points, to 18,625.34.
Manila was closed for public holidays.
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
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],”