Asian stocks rose this week by the most in two months as US jobs and home data and China’s preliminary manufacturing report showed signs the world’s two largest economies are recovering.
Li & Fung Ltd (利豐), a supplier of toys and clothes to Wal-Mart Stores Inc, climbed 2.8 percent this week in Hong Kong. Toyota Motor Corp, Asia’s largest carmaker, jumped 5.7 percent in Tokyo after its Chinese venture partner, Guangzhou Automobile Group (廣州汽車集團) said the most difficult period has passed since the breakout of anti-Japan protests. Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s No. 15 company by value, surged 10 percent to a record in Seoul after debt ratings on its Japanese rivals were cut to junk by Fitch Ratings.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 2.5 percent to 122.87 this week, its sharpest weekly gain since the period ended Sept. 14. The gauge has gained almost 13 percent from this year’s low on June 4, as central banks from Europe, the US, Japan and China took steps to support economic growth.
“The manufacturing data bodes very well for 2013,” Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, said on Bloomberg Television. “A lot of the bad news has been priced in. We’ve probably seen the bottom for the markets.”
Stocks on Asia’s benchmark index were valued at about 13.8 times estimated earnings on average, compared with about 13.6 times for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 12.4 times for the STOXX Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Taiwan’s TAIEX increased 2.8 percent this week, after Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said on Thursday that government-controlled funds should buy equities. The index surged 3.1 percent higher to 7,326.01 on Friday, the biggest advance since Dec. 21. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) surged the most in 13 months and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), which has the biggest weighting on the index, jumped to a record.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 3.8 percent in a holiday-shortened week. The gauge has surged 8.1 percent since Nov. 14 when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called for elections that polls show the opposition Liberal Democratic Party would win. The Bank of Japan held off from more monetary easing on Tuesday after expanding asset purchases in September and last month.
South Korea’s KOSPI gained 2.7 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 1.5 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 1.8 percent. The Reserve Bank of Australia said more interest-rate reductions may be appropriate to spur economic growth as the nation’s mining boom wanes, minutes of its Nov. 6 policy meeting showed this week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in the territory rose 3.6 percent. China’s manufacturing may expand for the first time in 13 months this month, according to a preliminary survey released on Thursday by HSBC Holdings PLC and Markit Economics.
The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.6 percent this week, underperforming other indexes in the region as waning speculation of lower bank reserve requirements overshadowed the positive manufacturing data.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila closed 0.71 percent higher from Thursday, adding 38.97 points to 5,552.34.
Wellington increased 11.12 points, or 0.28 percent, to 4,008.33.
Mumbai was flat, dropping 10.77 points to 18,506.57.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last