INDONESIA
Inflation rate jumps
Inflation accelerated faster than expected last month, official data showed yesterday, as prices of some goods were hiked in anticipation of President Joko Widodo’s new government raising fuel prices. Inflation rose to 4.83 percent on-year from 4.53 percent in September as the cost of everyday items such as cigarettes and cooking gas increased, the national statistics agency said. The figure was slightly higher than economists had forecast. Widodo is expected to announce a large increase in the prices of gasoline and diesel in the coming weeks to cut government subsidies that are a drain on the nation.
AVIATION
Ryanair raises profit goal
Ryanair Holdings PLC upgraded its full-year profit goal for the second time this year, saying that any slowdown in the European economy could push people in its direction as efforts to attract business passengers pay off. Ryanair stock surged 9.1 percent after it said net income for the 12 months ending on March 31 would be in the range of 750 million euros to 770 million euros (US$936 million to US$961 million), at least 100 million euros more than previously forecast. Chief executive officer Michael O’Leary, targeting a return to annual profit growth after the first decline in five years in the current fiscal year, has toned down his own sometimes abrasive approach to customer relations while refining the Dublin-based company’s no-frills model to draw in more corporate clients. O’Leary said there is no indication that a slowing European economy would clip discount demand and that it could play in Ryanair’s favor.
INVESTMENT
HK reaches yuan limits
Hong Kong advised fund managers who seek more yuan investment quotas for China’s onshore markets to apply through London and Singapore, as the territory has exhausted its own limits. Hong Kong has 270 billion yuan (US$44 billion) of quotas in the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) program, which allows the use of yuan raised offshore to buy securities on the mainland. China has approved all the quotas available to Hong Kong as of Thursday last week, according to data from the Beijing’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). China has expanded the investor program to the UK, Singapore, France, Germany and South Korea. The UK received approvals for 9.6 billion yuan out of the maximum 80 billion yuan of quotas allotted to it, while Singapore has got clearance for 8.8 billion yuan out of its 50 billion yuan limit, SAFE data showed.
BANKING
Westpac profit jumps 12%
Australian banking giant Westpac yesterday posted a 12 percent jump in full-year net profit to A$7.56 billion (US$6.60 billion), driven by growth in lending volumes and customer deposits. The result in the 12 months to Sept. 30 compared to A$6.82 billion the previous year. Cash earnings — the measure more closely watched by analysts, which strips out volatile items — were up 8 percent at A$7.63 billion, slightly above expectations. The result follows a bumper annual net profit last week for ANZ Bank, up 15 percent to A$7.3 billion, although National Australia Bank’s yearly profit shrunk 1.1 percent to A$5.3 billion due to hefty UK writedowns. With the nation’s biggest lender, Commonwealth Bank, posting a 13 percent jump in full-year net profit to a record A$8.63 billion in August, their collective profits soared to about A$28 billion for this year, despite a slowing economy.
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],”