Most Asian stocks rose on Friday as Japan equities got a boost from a weaker yen as the Bank of Japan (BOJ) kept its monetary policy unchanged.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined less than 0.1 percent at 4:51pm in Hong Kong with more stocks gaining than falling.
The gauge has lost 0.6 percent this week, its biggest weekly slide since March.
The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ended up 68.38 points, or 0.68 percent, at 10,156.73. The TAIEX was down 0.4 percent from last week’s 10,199.65 points.
Japan’s TOPIX gained 0.5 percent as the yen extended its biggest drop against the US dollar in five months.
Softbank Group Corp added 2.9 percent.
The BOJ maintained its policy rate and kept its 10-year bond yield target at about zero percent.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said it was too soon to show any stimulus exit plan, which many investors had been watching for.
Hong Kong shares steadied on Friday after the previous session’s sharp slide triggered by US monetary tightening, but the benchmark index posted its biggest weekly loss in three months.
The Hang Seng index rose 0.2 percent to 25,626.49 points, but registered a 1.6 percent weekly loss, the biggest since early March.
On Thursday, the benchmark dropped 1.2 percent.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 0.4 percent on Friday, to 10,384.89 points, and fell nearly 2 percent for the week.
The US Federal Reserve raised short-term interests on Wednesday and outlined plans to shrink its balance sheet, raising concerns about tighter liquidity globally and capital flows out of Asia.
Sentiment has also been dented by China’s weak producer inflation and investment data, which reinforced concerns of a renewed slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 percent while South Korea’s KOSPI was little changed.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2 percent.
India’s SENSEX and the NIFTY index were little changed.
Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index lost 0.7 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.2 percent.
Malaysia’s KLCI edged up 0.1 percent, while the Philippines PCOMP lost 1 percent.
Thailand’s SET rose 0.2 percent and Vietnam’s VNIndex gained 0.1 percent.
Additional reporting by CNA and Reuters
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six