Asian stocks fell on Friday, with the regional benchmark index paring its biggest monthly advance since September 2013, as consumer shares led declines.
Woolworths Ltd plunged 9.5 percent in Sydney after the supermarket chain cut its profit forecast. Noble Group Ltd tumbled 7.1 percent in Singapore after the commodities trader reported its first quarterly loss in more than three years amid allegations of accounting malpractice.
Nexon Co surged 9.7 percent in Tokyo after the online game distributor said it would buy back ¥10 billion (US$84 million) in shares. Casino stocks rebounded, with Sands China Ltd rising 2.3 percent in Hong Kong after dropping 13 percent the past four days.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.1 percent to 146.25 as of 4:41pm in Hong Kong. The gauge is on track for a 4.2 percent gain this month and a 0.9 percent weekly advance after Greece and its creditors this week brokered a deal to extend bailout funding for four months and US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen dampened concerns of an imminent rate increase.
“The market has been performing largely with the help of the Fed the last couple of years,” Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist who helps oversee US$1.4 trillion at Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, said on Bloomberg Television.
“Valuations aren’t stretched at this point. We have more upside,” Wren said.
The regional benchmark index traded at 14.6 times estimated earnings at the last close, the highest since March 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 17.8 times for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Singapore’s Straits Times Index each lost 0.3 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent before the start of the annual National People’s Congress meeting next week.
New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index climbed 0.3 percent to extend a record high. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.3 percent after falling as much as 0.6 percent.
Japan’s TOPIX added 0.1 percent. Japan’s industrial output rose 4 percent in January from the month before, beating estimates for a 2.7 percent rise forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Core consumer prices rose 2.2 percent in January from a year earlier, compared with estimates for a 2.3 percent increase.
Mumbai also rose 1.65 percent, while Kuala Lumpur edged up 0.02 percent.
Elsewhere in Asia, Bangkok dropped 0.41 percent, Singapore closed down 0.68 percent, Jakarta edged down 0.02 percent and Manila closed 0.44 percent lower.
Taiwan’s markets were closed for a public holiday.
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],”