China, the world’s biggest gold consumer, reduced imports from Hong Kong for the first time in three months as investors were lured by returns in the property market.
Net purchases fell to 56 tonnes last month from 64.1 tonnes in March, and compared with 46.6 tonnes a year earlier, according to data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department compiled by Bloomberg. China bought 74.2 tonnes compared with 76.3 tonnes a month earlier, while exports to Hong Kong were 18.1 tonnes versus 12.1 tonnes.
While shares have declined 20 percent in China this year, a credit boom has spurred a revival in the property market. New-home prices excluding government-subsidized housing climbed in 65 of the 70 cities tracked by the government last month, compared with 62 in March, according to official data. That was the most cities since December 2013.
“Gold dropped under the radar as ‘hot money’ investors hunted for high-yielding investments that can pay off in the short term,” said Liu Xu (劉旭), a trader at Beijing-based private asset management company Guoyun Investment Co (國運香港投資), before the data were released.
Swiss exports of gold to China dropped to 14 tonnes last month from 29.5 tonnes in the previous month, according to the Federal Customs Administration.
China’s jewelry consumption is likely to come under pressure because the economy continues to expand slowly, curbing demand for discretionary items, World Gold Council China director Roland Wang (王立新)said earlier this month.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained