Asian stocks outside Japan fell this week as investors weighed earnings reports with trading curtailed by holidays around the region.
The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index slid 0.3 percent to 475.51, dropping a third week. Samsung Electronics Co and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) were the biggest drags on the gauge.
The broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.2 percent this week. The regional measure slid 0.5 percent last month to cap its first loss in three months amid signs of a deepening slowdown in China and as tensions in Ukraine escalated.
“Earnings season in Asia is probably not as good as what we’ve been seeing in the US,” said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Ltd in Melbourne. “But corporate Asia seems to be in relatively healthy shape for the moment.”
Of the companies on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index that have posted results since the beginning of last month and for which Bloomberg has estimates, 52 percent beat earnings expectations. That compares with 75 percent on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
In Taipei, the TAIEX added 1.1 percent this week to close at 8,867.32. Shares staged a technical rebound on Friday on gains posted by select high-tech companies that reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, dealers said.
However, the index’s advance was held down by investors’ reluctance to chase prices before the US released non-farm payroll data later that day, dealers said.
Advancers on Friday included IC chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科), smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) and flat-panel manufacturer AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), dealers said.
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong, also known as the H-share index, was little changed this week. The southern territory’s benchmark Hang Seng Index added 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s bourse was shut on Thursday and mainland markets were closed the past two trading days.
China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index came in at 50.4, compared with the 50.5 median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. The final reading in HSBC Holdings PLC’s and Markit Economics’s private survey due next week is expected to show a four-month contraction in factory activity.
Japan’s TOPIX gained 1.1 percent this week. The Bank of Japan on Wednesday refrained from adding stimulus and said it is on track to meet its inflation target.
South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.6 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.3 percent, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index advanced 1.5 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 0.5 percent.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila closed 0.52 percent higher from Thursday, adding 35.06 points to 6,742.97.
Mumbai slipped 0.06 percent, or 13.91 points, to 22,403.89 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