Asian stocks posted their biggest weekly gain since August 2007 amid optimism governments worldwide will succeed in reviving lending and global growth.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has rallied 21 percent from a five-year low on March 9, technically entering a bull market.
Toyota Motor Corp, which gets 37 percent of its sales from North America, gained 10 percent in Tokyo on optimism the US Treasury’s plan to remove banks’ “toxic” assets will revive economic growth.
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s No. 1 mining company, climbed 5.7 percent in Sydney after prices for oil and metals advanced.
MSCI’s Asian benchmark gauge rose 7.5 percent to 85.49 last week, its best weekly performance since the week ended on Aug. 24, 2007.
A measure tracking energy stocks on the MSCI gauge rallied 11 percent this week, the sharpest jump among the 10 industry groups on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 10 percent, its best week since October. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 8.6 percent while South Korea’s Kospi Index added 5.7 percent.
Governments from the US to Japan are widening measures to ease the financial crisis, which has caused more than US$1 trillion of losses worldwide, and to avert what the World Bank predicts will be the first global economic contraction since World War II.
Toyota jumped 10 percent to ¥3,260 (US$33.31) in Tokyo last week. Sony Corp, which gets a quarter of its sales from the US, surged 13 percent to ¥2,225.
Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s biggest maker of computer memory, rose 7.8 percent to 584,000 won in Seoul.
BHP climbed 5.7 percent to A$34.01 (US$23.56) in Sydney. Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil producer, jumped 11 percent to HK$8.33 (US$1.07) in Hong Kong. Crude oil added 2.6 percent to US$52.38 a barrel in New York last week.
A measure of six primary metals traded in London fell 0.1 percent.
Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, soared 21 percent to A$56.88. The company said on Thursday that it had an alternative plan should Aluminum Corp of China’s US$19.5 billion investment deal fail.
MSCI’s Asian benchmark gauge rose 13.7 percent this month, which was the biggest monthly gain since October 1998, when governments were cutting interest rates to alleviate the Asian financial crisis.
The gains pared the measure’s drop this year to 4.6 percent and raised the average valuation of companies on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index yesterday to 16.7 times profit, the highest level since December 2007.
TAIPEI
Taiwanese share prices could face resistance in the week ahead after their recent strong showing, amid worries about earnings reports from high-tech firms scheduled for early next month, dealers said.
They said profit-taking could cap any gains, although the financial and industrial sectors could see a bounce from rotational buying.
“It is time for the market to have a correction, which is expected to make it technically healthier for another round of upside,” President Securities analyst Steven Huang said.
For the week to Friday, the weighted index rose 429.09 points or 8.65 percent to 5,390.70. The index gained 1.31 percent the previous week.
Huang said a central bank decision to stop a cycle of interest rate cuts, after seven reductions since September, had boosted investor confidence.
“I do not expect the market will suffer any plunge at a time when there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel in an economic recession,” he said.
Other regional markets
KUALA LUMPUR: Flat. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index lost 0.04 points to 885.43.
Genting fell 2.1 percent to 3.78 ringgit while Sime Darby gained 1.7 percent to 5.90.
JAKARTA: Up 3.01 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index jumped 42.77 points to 1,462.74. The market was closed on Thursday for a national holiday.
MANILA: Up 2.61 percent. The composite index added 51.99 points to 2,040.25.
WELLINGTON: Up 1.42 percent. The benchmark NZX-50 index rose 37.22 points to 2,653.48.
MUMBAI: Up 0.45 percent. The 30-share SENSEX index rose 45.39 points to 10,048.49, its fifth straight day of gains.
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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘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)