Asian stocks closed higher on Friday amid a firmer dollar in quiet trading as most markets were shut for the Easter weekend, dealers said.
However sentiment remained cautious with gains mostly marginal as the threat of high oil prices lurked in the background and with the US Federal Reserve's warning over inflation continuing to ring in investors' ears.
Markets here chose to ignore Wall Street's mixed performance overnight but some dealers found a stronger US dollar a source of comfort with exporters in the region set to benefit from weaker local currencies.
The TAIEX gained 1.08 percent on a bounce in semiconductor and flat-panel stocks mainly on support from government-linked institutions, and ahead of yesterday's mass rally to protest China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
Analysts said trade was relatively modest as most other market participants took to the sidelines ahead of yesterday's rally.
The TAIEX gained 64.91 points at 6,065.91, the high for the day, on turnover of NT$58.66 billion (US$1.86 billion).
Risers led decliners 675 to 211, with 128 stocks unchanged.
Japanese share prices closed 0.13 percent higher as a firmer dollar eased fears that a strong yen would hurt exports, still the main driver for local economic growth, dealers said.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark NIKKEI-225 index rose 15.13 points to 11,761.10 but was well off an early high of 11,802.70.
The broader TOPIX index of all First Section shares gained 5.34 points or 0.45 percent to 1,193.78.
South Korean share prices closed 0.94 percent higher, ending two straight days of losses, on bargain-hunting by institutional investors in the blue chips such as Samsung Electronics, dealers said.
The KOSPI index closed up 8.97 points at 965.30, just off a high of 965.42.
Chinese share prices gave up early gains and closed 0.20 percent lower on Friday as banks were hit by quick profit-taking after recent gains and power generators underperformed on cost worries, dealers said.
The Shanghai A-share Index lost 2.56 points to 1,265.03 on turnover of 5.02 billion yuan (US$606 million) while the Shenzhen A-share Index was down 0.14 points or 0.05 percent at 313.78 on turnover of 3.54 billion yuan.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A- and B-shares, shed 2.56 points or 0.21 percent at 1,205.63 on turnover of 5.08 billion yuan.
Stock markets in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Hong Kong were closed on Friday.
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
RSS