Asian stocks rose this week, with the regional gauge capping its longest streak of weekly gains since September, as US data signaled resilience in the world’s biggest economy and concern about the Ukraine crisis eased.
Honda Motor Co, a carmaker that gets almost half its sales in North America, climbed 4.5 percent in Tokyo. Sekisui House advanced 4.9 percent after the Japanese developer’s profit forecast beat analysts’ estimates. Sun Art Retail Group jumped 11 percent in Hong Kong, as Barclays PLC and UBS AG raised their ratings on China’s largest hypermarket operator after it posted higher profit.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 0.9 percent to 139.12 this week, extending gains for a fourth straight week.
Shares advanced after reports showed US manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than projected last month, while fewer Americans than projected filed unemployment claims last week and as concern eased that Russia’s incursion into Ukraine would spark a broader conflict.
“A period of positive market outlook is not that strange when the global economy is in the best shape it has been over the last year,” ING Investment Management chief investment officer Hans Stoter said. “I don’t think Ukraine has such a big impact.”
Japan’s TOPIX climbed 2.1 percent this week, as the yen weakened and an advisory committee said the Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest, does not need a domestic-bond focus. The Japanese currency slid 1.4 percent against the US dollar this week, the biggest drop since July.
Taiwan’s TAIEX gained 0.9 percent this week to close at 8,713.96. However, trading was flat on Friday after investors locked in earlier gains, halting the market’s advance, dealers said.
Market sentiment turned cautious after lawmakers in Ukraine’s Crimea region approved the holding of a referendum on whether to return the region to Russian control, the dealers said.
Many investors also preferred to keep more cash on hand to avoid possible losses ahead of the release of US non-farm payroll data later in the day, they added.
Select large-cap electronics stocks continued to move higher, which lent some support to the broader market and kept the index from falling into negative territory at the close, the dealers said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock in the local market, closed up 1.33 percent at NT$114.50. IC chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) gained 1.72 percent to NT$473, as the company reported record-high consolidated monthly sales after completing a merger at the beginning of last month with smaller rival MStar Semiconductor Inc (晨星半導體).
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest IC packaging and testing services provider, hit the daily limit to close at NT$32.35 on bargain hunting since the stock had been consolidating for some time.
However, smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) fell 1.44 percent to end at NT$1,370, while smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) closed down 1.43 percent at NT$138.00.
Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1 percent, its first weekly gain in three weeks, as investors assessed the outcome of the National People’s Congress.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) kept the annual growth target unchanged at 7.5 percent for this year, stoking speculation the government would allow the country’s US$21 trillion debt mountain to inflate.
India’s BSE Sensex Index jumped 3.8 percent, its best weekly gain since April last year, after data showed overseas funds extended purchases of local shares ahead of general elections that start next month.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index increased 1.1 percent to a five-and-a-half-year high, New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index advanced 2.7 percent to a record and the Philippine Stock Exchange Index rose 0.9 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.8 percent, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies fell 1.8 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.3 percent.
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