Asian stocks fell on Friday, retreating from the highest level in four months, as investors assessed a torrent of Chinese data, Japanese shares dropped after an earthquake and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) missed earnings estimates.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.2 percent to 132.25 on Friday, slipping from its highest level since December and trimming its gain for the week to 4.7 percent.
Japan’s TOPIX dropped 0.7 percent to pare its best weekly gain since February to 5.7 percent, after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit the island of Kyushu on Thursday, killing at least nine people. A second magnitude 7.3 quake struck yesterday, killing dozens and injuring hundreds.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
In Taipei, the TAIEX added 0.4 percent on Friday to 8,700.39. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, sank 1.2 percent after forecasting second-quarter sales below analyst estimates on decelerating smartphone demand and sliding PC shipments.
The stock was among the biggest drags on the MSCI Asia Pacific index. The TAIEX closed the week up 1.9 percent from 8,541.50 on Friday last week.
In the old-economy sector on Friday, food stocks rose 1.53 percent, cement stocks climbed 1.19 percent, automobile stocks increased 2.9 percent, glass stocks were up 2.3 percent, and fuel and electricity stocks gained 1.87 percent.
The bellwether electronics sector finished almost flat, rising just 0.01 percent.
Data showed China’s economy stabilized last quarter as the property sector rebounded, markets steadied and loose monetary policy helped spur an improvement in factory conditions.
“The Chinese government will feel that the existing policies are working,” said Andrew Sullivan, managing director for sales trading at Haitong International Securities Group in Hong Kong. “So there is less potential for more easing in the short term.”
The Asia-Pacific gauge has surged 17 percent since Feb. 12, this week recouping all of its losses for this year, as the US Federal Reserve reassured investors that it would not rush to increase borrowing costs and a rebound in commodity prices lifted mining and oil producers.
China’s GDP rose 6.7 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the statistics authority announced on Friday, meeting the median projection of economists Bloomberg surveyed and in-line with the government growth target of 6.5 percent to 7 percent for the full year.
Industrial output, fixed-asset investment and retail sales all picked up last month.
“Investors are still skeptical of the sustainability of such an improvement,” said Ben Kwong, a director at brokerage KGI Asia Ltd in Hong Kong. “There’s some profit-taking pressure because of cumulative gains in a row.”
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.1 percent, its first decline in eight days. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 0.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.8 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI lost 0.1 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.3 percent. New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 Index added 0.3 percent, closing at a record high.
E-mini contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were down 0.1 percent after the US benchmark closed flat on Thursday, as investors assessed earnings releases and data showing the labor market is improving with little pickup in inflation.
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