Asian stocks this well fell the most since November, as Apple Inc suppliers declined after the US tech giant reported its weakest sales since 2009 and some investors speculated shares may have risen too far, too fast.
Hon Hai Precision Industry (鴻海精密), which assembles iPads and iPhones for Apple, slid 2.3 percent to NT$83.40 in Taipei trading. Samsung Electronics Co fell to the lowest in almost two months in Seoul, as the world’s largest maker of mobile phones said the strengthening won may cut operating profit by at least 3 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) this year. Sony Corp soared in Tokyo trading as the TOPIX posted its longest streak of weekly gains since January 1973, boosted by the yen’s weakness against the US dollar.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.7 percent to 131.74. Gains in Japanese shares limited declines on the broader pan-Asian benchmark as speculation the new government would take steps to end deflation pushed the TOPIX higher for an 11th week. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index dropped 0.8 percent.
“Markets are at highs and some investors are becoming cautious after everyone turned bullish on stocks,” said Koji Toda, chief fund manager at Tokyo-based Resona Bank. “Most investors are still optimistic on the equity market. Just because markets are falling today doesn’t mean they will continue to drop.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific index, the benchmark regional equities gauge, surged to the highest level in 17 months on Tuesday. That left the measure trading at 14.3 times average estimated earnings compared with 13.6 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 12.3 times for the STOXX Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
International investors are the most bullish on stocks in at least three-and-a-half years, with close to two-thirds planning to raise their holdings of equities during the next six months, according to a Bloomberg survey published on Tuesday. As the global financial and business elite gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for their annual forum, 53 percent of respondents to the Bloomberg Global Poll also said equities would offer the highest return in the next year.
Taiwan’s TAIEX slid 0.8 percent this week to close at 7,672.58. While the index extended its losses on Friday, it garnered technical support as it approached 7,600 points and investors, with plenty of liquidity on their hands, pursued bargains, dealers said.
Select Taiwanese suppliers to Apple, in particular Hon Hai, also showed their resilience on Friday by outperforming the broader market, an indication that Apple’s negative leads have largely been digested, they said.
“Look at Hon Hai. After a recent consolidation of the stock, investors were more willing to buy its shares to take advantage of the cheap valuation,” Concord Securities (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang said.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 1.3 percent this week, to the highest level since April 2011. The gauge advanced for the past eight days, its longest streak of advances in almost three years. Consumer prices last quarter rose at a slower-than-expected pact, a report showed on Wednesday, pushing down the Australian dollar and giving the central bank scope to reduce interest rates further.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.1 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.1 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 1.8 percent.
Japan’s TOPIX gained 0.6 percent, marking its longest weekly winning streak since 1973. The Bank of Japan this week said it would shift to US Federal Reserve-style open-ended asset purchases and the yen weakened as falling consumer prices added to the case for further easing.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila closed 0.82 percent higher, adding 50.37 points from Thursday to 6,167.64.
Mumbai rose 0.9 percent, or 179.75 points, to 20,103.53.
Wellington rose 0.24 percent, or 9.91 points, to 4,199.82.
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