Most Asian stocks rose, led by Chinese shares trading in Hong Kong, as investors awaited a monthly government report on US jobs to gauge the strength of the world’s largest economy.
Great Wall Motor Co (長城汽車) surged 13 percent in Hong Kong to a two-month high as carmakers and developers climbed after China cut mortgage requirements and passenger-vehicle tax. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd (銀河娛樂集團) jumped 10 percent after a report the government may unveil measures to support Macau tourism. Westpac Banking Corp lost 2.1 percent as Australia’s largest lenders dragged on the regional equities gauge.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.2 percent to 126 as of 4:14pm in Hong Kong. The gauge touched a three-year low this week.
The regional benchmark index was on course to rise 0.8 percent this week, with mainland Chinese markets currently shut for a week-long holiday.
Japan’s TOPIX gained 0.2 percent amid low trading volume, with rubber and paper producers climbing.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 3.2 percent and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland firms listed in the city advanced 3 percent as trading resumed after a holiday and the government stepped up targeted support for the economy. China Resources Land Ltd (華潤置地) jumped 8.7 percent after the People’s Bank of China reduced the minimum home down payment for first-time buyers.
The TAIEX rose 0.11 percent to 8,305.03 on Friday.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.4 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI retreated 0.5 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index sank 1.2 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index added 0.1 percent. Markets in India are closed for a holiday.
E-mini futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.3 percent. The underlying gauge rose 0.2 percent in New York on Thursday, reversing a drop of as much as 1 percent.
US manufacturing barely grew last month. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 50.2, the weakest since May 2013, the Tempe, Arizona-based group said on Thursday.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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