Asian property stocks were buoyed this week as Hong Kong developers advanced on speculation China will maintain stimulus spending, while technology-related companies declined.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell 2.6 percent to 121.62 this week. The gauge has climbed 69 percent from a five-year low on March 9 as better-than-estimated economic and earnings reports increase optimism that the global economy is recovering.
“Investors haven’t forgotten the nightmare we had last year and are quick to sell when they get anxious,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co, which oversees about US$56 billion in Tokyo. “Company profits are gradually returning, but we need to discern whether the stock price already reflects the improvement or not.”
China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed for the third straight week after central bank adviser Fan Gang said the government should maintain its stimulus spending for another year. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.5 percent as the nation’s central bank signaled more interest-rate increases as the economy improves.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.3 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 3 percent.
Reports from China this week showed industrial production and retail sales grew at a faster pace last month. Still, the Chinese economy expanded 8.9 percent in the third quarter, less than the 9 percent expected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
Taiwanese share prices are expected to encounter selling next week as the bellwether high-tech sector remains pressured on profit-taking, dealers said Friday.
Investors, in particular, are watching closely how large-cap electronics firms will report their earnings for the third quarter, aiming to pin down the path of global demand recovery, they said.
The market’s upside is expected to be limited with a cap at around 7,700 points next week, while any downside pressure may see technical support at 7,400, dealers said.
For the week to Friday, the weighted index fell 65.82 points, or 0.85 percent, to 7,649.28 after a 1.89 percent increase a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$123.52 billion (US$3.81 billion), compared with NT$133.12 billion the week before.
“Institutional investors’ holdings in electronic firms remain high. It is possible for them to continue to cut positions for profit,” Mega Securities Co (兆豐證券) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
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
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
‘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)