Asian stocks rose, posting their biggest monthly gain since 2009, as Japanese shares rallied following a report the government is considering additional fiscal stimulus and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) kept its monetary policy unchanged.
Shionogi & Co surged 11 percent in Tokyo after the Nikkei Shimbun reported the drugmaker would release a one-day treatment for influenza in 2018. Nomura Real Estate Holdings Inc advanced 9.8 percent after raising its full-year profit forecast. Macquarie Group Ltd climbed 2 percent in Sydney after Australia’s largest investment bank reported first-half net income jumped 58 percent to a record. Asciano Ltd rose 8.5 percent as a group led by Qube Holdings Ltd offered to buy additional shares in the logistics company to block a rival bid from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.4 percent to 134.49, taking its monthly jump to 8.6 percent, led by a rebound in energy shares.
Japan’s TOPIX rose 0.7 percent on Friday, capping its biggest monthly gain since April 2013. While the BOJ refrained from easing monetary policy, the Nikkei reported that the government might introduce additional budget measures if third-quarter GDP, which will be announced on Nov. 16, shows the economy needs aid.
With the BOJ meeting out of the way, “it’s not surprising that stocks are back up as investors shift their eyes to earnings and government moves,” said Takuya Takahashi, a Tokyo-based senior strategist at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. “The extra budget will of course be seen as favorable.”
In Taipei, shares closed lower on Friday as investors reacted to government data showing that third-quarter GDP contracted for the firest time in six years. The TAIEX ended down 0.2 percent from Thursday and 1.4 percent from the previous week at 8,554.31.
The government reported that GDP declined 1.01 percent in the third quarter, the worst quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2009, when it fell 1.24 percent from a year earlier amid a global financial crisis.
“At a time when market confidence has been fragile, the weak macroeconomic data seemed to have a more visible impact on local shares during most of the session,” Ta Ching Securities (大慶證券) analyst Andy Hsu said.
The silver lining was that the index recovered part of its earlier downturn by the close, he said.
“Judging from the movement of select financial stocks, I think it’s possible that the government-led fund was on the buy side to support the index and strengthen investor confidence,” he said.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) gained 0.65 percent to close at NT$46.40, off an early low of NT$45.80, and Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) rose 0.38 percent to end at NT$52.70, recovering from an early low of NT$52.10.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chip maker, closed unchanged at NT$136.50, and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) an assembler of iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc, lost 0.23 percent to end at NT$86.60.
“It seemed that the market has found some technical support at around 8,500 points in the short term,” Hsu said.
“But if there is a technical rebound, the index could see stiff technical resistance ahead of 8,700 points as caution during the current earnings season is still dictating market sentiment,” he said.
Even with the slide on Friday, the Shanghai Composite Index capped its biggest monthly advance since April as the Chinese government took measures to end a US$5 trillion rout and policymakers introduced stimulus to boost economic growth. China’s decision to end birth restrictions might boost retail sales by as much as 240 billion yuan (US$38 billion) a year starting in 2017, Credit Suisse Group AG said.
South Korea’s KOSPI slid 0.2 percent on Friday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.5 percent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index lost 0.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.8 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.1 percent.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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