Asian stocks rose for a second straight week with Japan’s TOPIX reaching its highest since 2008 as the yen weakened to a five-year low and as US data added to evidence the world’s largest economy is strengthening.
Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s biggest carmaker, gained 3.6 percent this week in Tokyo. Hyundai Merchant Marine Co, South Korea’s second-largest sea cargo carrier, jumped 12 percent after its parent said it plans to sell assets to raise 3.3 trillion won (US$3.1 billion).
Acer Inc gained 8.5 percent in Taipei after the personal-computer maker named a new chief executive officer.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.2 percent to 140.33 this week, the biggest weekly advance since the five days ended on Nov. 15.
Shares climbed after data showed third-quarter US growth was faster than previously estimated, while a separate report showed jobless claims dropped more than forecast in the week that ended on Dec. 21.
The IMF said it will raise its outlook for the US economy next year.
Holiday closings in the week included Monday in Japan, Wednesday and Thursday in Hong Kong and Australia, and Wednesday in Singapore and South Korea.
Asia’s regional equities gained 11 percent this year as the US and China showed signs of stabilization.
The gauge yesterday traded at 14 times estimated earnings, near the highest level since May, compared with multiples of 16.7 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 15.4 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index on Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Taiwan’s TAIEX advanced 1.5 percent this week to 8,535.04 points, the highest level since Aug. 2, 2011, when the index finished at 8,545.72 points.
Shares in Taiwan are expected to move higher before the market closes on Jan. 28 for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, as the local bourse has become technically healthier after overcoming strong technical resistance at about 8,500 points, analysts said yesterday.
As foreign institutional investors return to the trading floor after the Christmas holiday period to bring more funds into the local market, the weighted index could test 8,800 points or even 8,900 points before the market closure, analysts said.
The benchmark weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange closed up 0.57 percent on Friday.
The last trading day of the local equity market before the Lunar New Year holiday will be Jan. 27, with trading resumed on Feb. 5.
Li Sui-jia (李穗佳), a manager at the Taishin 2000 High Technology Equity Fund, said the future performance of the local bourse will largely depend on whether Wall Street continues to move higher.
Li said that with the impact from uncertainty over the Fed’s policy fading, Wall Street is likely to continue its uptrend, which could reinforce investor confidence in other global financial markets, including Taiwan’s.
Even if the market attention shifts to when the Fed will start to hike interest rates, Li said, the US central bank is unlikely to raise its key interest rates until 2015, so market volatility due to such rate hike concerns could be short-lived.
Li said that as long as Wall Street keeps moving ahead and remains high in the first quarter of next year, the momentum of the local bourse is likely to continue after breaching 8,500 points.
Japan’s TOPIX this week rose 2.3 percent, closing at its highest level in five years as the yen touched 105 against the US dollar for the first time since October 2008.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.9 percent.
Toyota Motor rose 3.6 percent to ¥6,390 as Goldman Sachs Group Inc said the carmaker may raise its operating-profit forecast if it takes the weaker yen into account. Mazda Motor Corp, a carmaker that gets 30 percent of sales in North America, jumped 6.7 percent to ¥542.
The S&P 500 extended record highs after US data released last week after the close of Asian markets showed GDP climbed at a 4.1 percent annualized rate, the strongest since the final three months of 2011 and up from a previous estimate of 3.6 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, also known as the H-share index, both climbed 1.9 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.8 percent.
Shares gained after China’s central bank on Tuesday eased a year-end cash crunch by executing reverse-repurchase agreements for the first time in three weeks, sending the nation’s benchmark money-market rate to its steepest weekly decline since February 2011.
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1 percent. Hyundai Merchant jumped 12 percent to 11,300 won in Seoul this week. Hyundai Group, with businesses from shipping to stock broking, will sell assets including three financial units as part of restructuring plans, it said in an e-mail on Sunday last week.
The sale would help the group raise cash, easing shareholders’ concerns, according to Kim Min Ji, an analyst at E*Trade Securities Co.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila gained 0.20 percent, or 11.51 points, from Thursday to 5,889.83.
Wellington ended the day flat, slipping 0.58 points to 4,767.36.
Mumbai rose 0.56 percent, or 118.99 points, from Thursday to 21,193.58 points.
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