Asian stocks ended the week little changed, as investors weighed optimism about corporate earnings against concern the US Federal Reserve may start paring stimulus and as the greenback gained against Asian currencies.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped less than 0.1 percent to 141.24 this week amid the busiest part of the earnings season for shares on the measure. The Fed maintained its stimulus plan while publishing a policy statement that economists at Citigroup Inc and Barclays PLC said opens the possibility of reduced bond purchases as soon as next month. The Asia Dollar Index fell 0.4 percent as the rupiah, yuan, ringgit and rupee all retreated from a week earlier.
“It’s becoming more and more obvious which companies are strong, and which are weak,” said Seiichiro Iwamoto, who helps oversee the equivalent of US$33 billion at Mizuho Asset Management Co. “We usually see cyclical weakness for the global economy from around now through February, so I think we’re seeing the best for corporate earnings being reported now.”
Japan’s TOPIX added 0.4 percent this week. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 2.4 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite climbed 0.8 percent as a report showed China’s manufacturing exceeded estimates. South Korea’s KOSPI also advanced 0.3 percent.
However, Taiwan’s TAIEX bucked the trend, with the index closing the week down 0.5 percent. The local bourse started the week strong, surging past the 8,400-point mark on Monday, before selling on the last two sessions amid concerns over corporate earnings drove it lower to 8,388.18 on Friday.
Disappointment over touchpanel supplier TPK Holding Co’s (宸鴻) third-quarter results led a wave of selling in tech stocks, which spread to old economy and financial stocks, dealers said.
“TPK’s third-quarter results disappointed the market, and its gloomy assessment for the fourth quarter also prompted investors to dump the stock,” Concord Securities (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang said.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index also slid 0.1 percent for the week.
More than 300 companies on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index reported earnings this week. Of those announcing quarterly results this season and for which Bloomberg compiles estimates, half posted profit that beat expectations, while 53 percent exceeded sales estimates, the data show.
Panasonic jumped 13 percent to ￥1,046 in Tokyo, its highest since April 2011, after doubling its net income forecast to ￥100 billion (US$1 billion). Sales will rise to ￥7.4 trillion, the company projected.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group advanced 3.3 percent to A$33.72 in Sydney and touched a record on Thursday after saying cash profit climbed to A$3.3 billion (US$3.2 billion) in the six months ended Sept. 30 from A$2.9 billion a year earlier.
Still, earnings at some companies disappointed investors. Sony Corp plunged 9.9 percent to ￥1,668 after unexpectedly lowering its full-year profit forecast by 40 percent, on stalling demand for TVs and digital cameras and box office flops.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 2.7 percent last month for a second monthly increase. That pushed its price-earnings ratio to 13.6 times estimated earnings on Friday from 12.7 at the end of August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with multiples of 15.9 for the S&P 500 and 14.9 for the STOXX Europe 600.
In other markets on Friday:
Mumbai ended up 0.15 percent or 32.29 points higher from Thursday to a new record of 21,196.81.
Wellington was flat, edging up 4.11 points from Thursday to 4,913.83.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
RSS