Asian stocks gained this week, with the regional benchmark posting its biggest advance in six weeks, driven by optimism that China will add to stimulus measures as investors weighed earnings.
China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd (中國海外發展有限公司), the biggest Chinese developer listed in Hong Kong, jumped 6.7 percent, while Power Finance Corp, which funds utilities, rose 28 percent in Mumbai as investors speculated that Gujarat State Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP) which was voted into power on Friday, will revive economic growth. Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), Asia’s largest Internet company, surged 11 percent in Hong Kong after its profit soared.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 1.3 percent to 139.72 this week, its steepest rally since the period ended on April 4. A measure of global equities touched a six-anda- half year high on Tuesday as US stock gauges rose to records.
China’s central bank told lenders to accelerate the granting of mortgages, spurring optimism that policymakers will do more to counter a slowdown in Asia’s No. 1 economy. In Taipei, the TAIEX rose 0.1 percent this week to close at 8,888.45 compared with 8,889.69 on May 9.
In the week’s final session, trading was flat, edging up 7.80 points, as smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) rose 0.31 percent to close on NT$163 and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) end up 0.23 percent higher at NT$88.8.
Foreigh institutional investors stayed on the buy side, serving as net buyers of NT$2.17 billion (US$71.84 million) worth of local shares, boosting demand for the New Taiwan dollar, dealers said.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged 3.9 percent this week, its biggest gain since September last year, as the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index added 2.8 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8 percent.
The People’s Bank of China on Tuesday told the nation’s 15 biggest lenders to accelerate the granting of mortgages, giving priority to first-time buyers while monitoring credit risks, according to a statement on its Web site.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克 強) is seeking to put a floor under the economic slowdown, with developers holding off on new construction as sales stall and the empty unit surplus swells. Home sales fell 18 percent last month from the previous month, data from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics show.
The S&P BSE SENSEX soared 4.9 percent in Mumbai this week to a record 24121.74 as Modi’s BJP swept to power with the biggest Indian election win in 30 years as voters tired of sluggish economic growth and corruption handed a historic defeat to the Gandhi dynasty that has dominated politics since the country’s founding. The value of Indian equities has climbed by more than US$330 billion since the BJP named Modi as its candidate on Sept. 13 last year. Japan’s TOPIX slid 0.6 percent this week as the yen gained 0.35 percent to ¥101.51 per US dollar. The equity measure slumped 11 percent this year, the most among developed markets tracked by Bloomberg.
More than 650 TOPIX members reported results this week. Sony, which forecast an annual loss for the sixth time in seven years, dropped 6.7 percent this week to ¥1,646. The loss will likely be ¥50 billion (US$493 million) in the 12 months ending on March 31, the electronics maker said. That compared with the ¥57.1 billion profit projected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index traded on Friday at 12.8 times estimated earnings, compared with 15.9 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Among the firms on the Asian gauge that reported results since April 1 and for which Bloomberg had estimates, 50.2 percent beat profit projections.
In other markets:
Wellington was down 0.17 percent, or 8.77 points, from Thursday to end at 5,186.19.
Manila dipped 0.46 percent, or 31.62 points, to close on 6,817.71.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”