Asian stocks rose last week, led by energy and raw-materials producers, after oil and metal prices rallied, and on speculation governments will step up measures to bolster the global economy.
CNOOC Ltd (中國海洋石油) rallied 14 percent and BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company, gained 6 percent as metals and oil climbed. Satyam Computer Services Ltd, an Indian software company, rallied 30.6 percent as the company’s chairman moved to restore investor confidence and as the Economic Times of India said Hewlett-Packard Co may buy a stake.
“There’s a bit of cautious optimism the new year might bring something better,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, which holds US$61 billion in Sydney. “Mining stocks were pushed down this year as investors realized the world was going to be dragged into some sort of recession. Growth should pick up through the second half of 2009.”
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index advanced 3.1 percent to 90.12 this week. Measures of energy and raw-materials stocks had the biggest gains among the broader index’s 10 industry groups. The energy and materials gauges lost more than half their value last year, the MSCI Asia-Pacific’s worst performers, on concern the global economy sliding into recession would hurt commodity demand.
Japan was shut for the last three days of the week for the new year, with most markets closed on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 4.6 percent on Friday for the best start to a year since at least 1970.
The Asian benchmark index lost 43 percent last year, the worst year in its two-decade history, as the collapse of the US housing market caused losses at financial institutions worldwide to swell to more than US$1 trillion.
Stock markets worldwide lost US$30 trillion in value last year, with only three of 89 major equity indexes tracked by Bloomberg posting gains. MSCI’s Asian gauge trades at about 13 times estimated profit, down more than one-fifth from a year ago.
Growth in the global economy will slow to 2.2 percent this year from last year’s 3.7 percent, the IMF said on Nov. 6. The IMF said a growth rate of 3 percent or less is “equivalent to a global recession.”
An index of Australian manufacturing contracted for a seventh month last month, an industry report released in Canberra on Friday showed. Singapore’s economy may shrink more than previously forecast this year, the government said.
The global slowdown has prompted governments worldwide including the US and Japan to slash interest rates and announce stimulus packages. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pledged on Friday to keep devising measures to counter the slowdown.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), Taiwan’s No. 2 financial services company, surged 7.7 percent to NT$23.90. ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), Taiwan’s most unprofitable memory-chip maker, soared 16 percent to NT$2.43.
The government plans to spend NT$200 billion (US$6.1 billion) to help key industries through the global crisis, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said on Tuesday.
Tokyo, Taipei, Shanghai, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta and New Zealand were closed on Friday for public holidays and will reopen tomorrow.
Other regional markets:
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian shares rose 2 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 17.61 points to close at 894.36. Advancing stocks outnumbered declines 392 to 139.
MUMBAI: Indian shares closed 0.55 percent higher. The benchmark 30-share SENSEX index closed 54.76 points higher at 9,958.22.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary