Asian markets mostly declined on Friday after US Vice President Mike Pence claimed that China had meddled with the upcoming US midterm elections to unsettle the administration of US President Donald Trump, which Beijing has denied.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.7 percent to 159.65, down 3.4 percent for the week.
In Taipei, the TAIEX on Friday closed down 201.79 points, or 1.88 percent, at 10,517.12.
It was the worst performer in Asia this week, as a stronger US dollar led to heavy fund outflows, First Securities Investment Trust Co (第一金投信) said.
The index fell 4.44 percent on the week, worse than the 4.09 percent decline on Indonesia’s main board, company data showed.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 on Friday fell 0.8 percent to 23,783.72 and the KOSPI in South Korea dropped 0.3 percent to 2,267.51 points.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1 percent to 26,596.21 points.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 6,185.50 points.
Stocks fell in Singapore and Indonesia.
Markets in China were closed for a national holiday.
China took public and covert measures to interfere in the next month’s elections, Pence said.
These include targeting Chinese tariffs to industries in states that are crucial to Trump, intimidating academics and coercing US businesses to speak out against the Trump administration, he said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said Pence’s allegations were “groundless.”
Shares in Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and ZTE Corp (中興通訊) tumbled in Hong Kong after Bloomberg reported that China had inserted tiny chips into servers and computer equipment manufactured for the US to steal its technology secrets, citing corporate and government sources.
Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc dismissed the report.
Lenovo said Super Micro Computer Inc was not a supplier “in any capacity.”
However, its shares fell as much as 20 percent on Friday, recouping some of that to end down 16 percent. ZTE was off 11 percent.
“Risk sentiments remain fragile, especially with overnight news about China’s tiny chip hack and US Vice President Mike Pence’s tough words on China’s alleged interference in US politics, which could point to a further escalation of the ongoing US-China trade war,” Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp chief economist Selena Ling said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and CNA
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is