Asian stock markets gave investors a white-knuckle ride this year, but most are up sharply and analysts predict turbulent gains next year despite a severe US financial crisis.
"I think Asian markets will be up over the whole of 2008 -- but they are set to fall substantially over the next few months first," said Shanghai-based expert Andy Xie (
Chinese and Indian shares led the pack this year, fizzing up about 85 percent and 40 percent respectively and defying fears that they had already risen too far.
China held a series of sometimes huge stock flotations that raised billions of dollars, while foreign investors continued to pour money into Indian stocks.
But the key Japanese bourse had a year to forget as the Nikkei-225 index slumped about 12 percent amid a global credit crunch rooted in the ailing US economy.
"The overall Japanese market has come down quite sharply in the last few weeks," said Tokyo-based fund manager Hideo Shiozumi, the chief executive of Shiozumi Asset Management.
Asian markets have struggled since last month, mainly because of fears about the impact of an expected US economic slowdown after a mortgage default crisis there, analysts say.
China's attempt to curb economic and stock market growth, for instance by hiking borrowing costs repeatedly, has also affected sentiment, they say.
Xie warned the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong could fall 20 percent to 22,000 points over the next few weeks. But he predicted a recovery in Asia from March onwards.
Among other major Asian bourses, Taiwan is little changed. South Korea is up about 28 percent since the start of this year, Singapore roughly 11 percent and Australia some 10 percent.
"I suspect that Asian shares will continue to do well over the next 12 months," said Matt Robinson, an analyst at Moody's Economy.com in Sydney.
He said this year had been characterized by persistent stock market growth in Asia interrupted by sharp sell-offs.
The latter included a slide in February, when Chinese shares tumbled nearly 9 percent in a single day, he said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
RSS