Asian stocks posted the biggest weekly advance in more than a month on signs corporate earnings were improving and as concern eased that European nation’s mounting debt will wreck the global economic recovery.
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), China’s largest Internet company by market value, jumped 6.2 percent this week as earnings surged. Isuzu Motors Ltd soared 11 percent in Tokyo as it forecast earnings will more than double. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd climbed 4.5 percent as European policymakers unveiled loan packages for debt-laden nations.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose about 1.6 percent to 120.00 this week, the most since the period ended April 4. The index has fallen about 7.1 percent from a 20-month high on April 15, as Europe’s debt crisis and concern China will quell inflation eroded confidence in the global economic recovery.
“The underlying message from the economy and corporate earnings is that we’re on the recovery path,” said Prasad Patkar, who helps manage US$1.7 billion in Sydney at Platypus Asset Management Ltd. “The disruptions in the European Union over the last few weeks could have interfered with that process of healing. But the decisive action taken means the recovery won’t get cut short.”
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index and South Korea’s KOSPI Index both advanced 2.9 percent this week. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.9 percent in Tokyo.
The Philippines Stock Exchange Index surged 6 percent, the biggest weekly climb in a year, as Benigno Aquino headed for a landslide presidential election victory, easing concern the result would be contested.
“The upward momentum for corporate earnings will continue and that’s where investors will focus,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a strategist in Tokyo at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co, which oversees about US$64 billion.
Analysts expect earnings per share at companies in the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index to rise 53 percent in the next 12 months, compared with 26 percent for those in the S&P 500 and 38 percent for those in the STOXX Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
On Tuesday, the Shanghai Composite Index entered a so-called bear market after having lost 21 percent from its Nov. 23 high on concern China intensified steps to cool its property market. Chinese consumer prices rose last month at the fastest pace in 18 months, and property prices jumped a record 12.8 percent, China’s statistics bureau said this week.
The TAIEX climbed 1.6 points on Friday to close at 7,772.13. The index rose 2.7 percent this week, the first weekly gain in four.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the maker of the Eee PC low-cost notebook, declined 5.1 percent to NT$50.50, the lowest since Aug. 6. Shipments of computers to Europe may be cut because a falling euro reduces the NT dollar value of its sales, chief executive officer Jerry Shen (沈振來) said on Thursday.
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), Taiwan’s biggest maker of LCDs, fell 0.6 percent to NT$39.60, the lowest since May 7. The company’s board approved a plan to buy back and cancel 732 million preferred shares.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
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