Earnings jitters yesterday hit shares in Hong Kong after several Chinese tech companies reported worse-than-expected results.
The Hang Seng Index slid 2.4 percent, extending its weekly decline to 3.3 percent, the worst in five weeks. All but one stock on the 50-member gauge dropped, with technology shares tracking overnight losses for Chinese stocks listed in the US.
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) slid 4.9 percent ahead of next week’s quarterly report, while AAC Technologies Holdings Inc (瑞聲) had its worst week since 2010 as brokers downgraded the stock after disappointing results. Sunny Optical Technology Group Co (舜宇光學) fell 1.3 percent.
A rout in technology stocks has punished the Hang Seng Index this year, tipping it into a bear market in September. The gauge has just come off its longest streak of monthly losses in 36 years. Analysts have trimmed their earnings expectations for this year, predicting a contraction for members of the gauge on average.
“Concerns about an earnings slowdown are rising in China markets after AAC Technologies missed estimates,” said Castor Pang (彭偉新), head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi (京華山一) in Hong Kong. “There have been a few downgrades on the smartphone makers and earnings worries are spilling over to Tencent. It’s hurting sentiment for the whole market.”
AAC dropped 1.6 percent, ending the week with an 18 percent tumble as its third-quarter results prompted analyst downgrades. Tencent fell the most in nearly a month, while Sunny Optical lost 10 percent for the week.
Chinese investors dumped HK$1.9 billion (US$ 242.66 million) of Hong Kong stocks, the biggest selloff in nearly two weeks, Bloomberg data based on daily trading turnover showed.
On a weekly basis, Chinese investors have been net sellers of the territory’s shares for two weeks in a row.
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