Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index completing two weeks of gains, after reports from US housing to manufacturing showed the world’s largest economy is strengthening.
Iluka Resources Ltd climbed 3.4 percent in Sydney after posting an unexpected profit. Santos Ltd jumped 3.9 percent as earnings increased at the Australian oil and gas producer. Li & Fung Ltd (利豐) lost 4.6 percent in Hong Kong after the world’s largest supplier of clothes and toys to retailers said conditions would remain challenging in the US and Europe.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.2 percent to 148.78 at 7:13pm in Hong Kong, taking its gain this week to 0.5 percent. The index is within 0.5 percent of a six-year high as investors await clues on the timing of US interest-rate increases from US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen when she speaks to a Kansas City Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“Data was solid,” said Evan Lucas, a Melbourne-based markets strategist at IG Ltd. “US home sales smashed estimates and held true month-on-month, while the Philly Fed manufacturing index also was stronger than estimated. This all gave the market another reason to continue to leg up.”
In Taipei, the TAIEX rallied 1.4 percent this week to 9,380.10. The index closed above the 9,300-point mark on Friday for the first time since Aug. 4 after recent consolidation, as investors took their cues from gains on Wall Street overnight to hunt bargains, dealers said.
Buying was seen across the board, with the bellwether electronics sector staging a strong technical rebound, while the financial sector continued to move higher, lending more support to the broader market, the dealers said.
Old-economy stocks, particularly China concept stocks, which have close business ties with China, also attracted buying as investors shrugged off China’s worse-than-expected manufacturing activity data for August, they added.
Gainers in the electronics sector included Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), which rose 2.36 percent from Thursday to close at NT$303, and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which gained 2.93 percent to end at NT$84.40. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock in the local market, added 0.8 percent to NT$125.50, while Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which assembles iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc, rose 1.38 percent to NT$110.
“I expect these local suppliers to Apple will gain further, in particular in September, when the US firm unveils new products,” Taishin Securities Investment Advisory (台新投信) analyst Tony Huang (黃文清) said.
In the financial sector, Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) added 2.15 percent to close at NT$26.10 and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) rose 1.96 percent to NT$51.90.
The Philippines’ PSEi Index rose 1.8 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 1.1 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI advanced 0.6 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index edged up 0.3 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index added less than 0.1 percent. India’s S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.2 percent, extending its surge this year to 25 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced, while Japan’s TOPIX slid 0.4 percent.
While a report in the US on Friday showed fewer Americans than forecast applied for unemployment benefits last week, tepid wage growth and slow inflation have given the Fed room to hold interest rates near zero.
Data on Friday also showed US existing-home sales for last month posted its largest increase since September, while the Conference Board’s gauge of the economic outlook for the next three to six months increased 0.9 percent. The Markit Economics preliminary index of US manufacturing for this month jumped to the highest level since April 2010.
China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings Ltd (中國熔盛重工) climbed 7.9 percent to HK$1.50 in Hong Kong after agreeing to buy a stake in Kyrgyzstan oilfields.
GungHo Online Entertainment Inc gained 1.4 percent to ¥580 in Tokyo, as parent Softbank Corp plans to buy the unit’s stake in a Finnish online game developer.
Li & Fung lost 4.6 percent to HK$10. The Kowloon, Hong Kong-based firm, which has Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp as its two top customers, on Friday said most of its customers are delaying order decisions until they get better indications about consumer confidence in the third quarter.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained