Asian stocks rose for a sixth week on speculation policymakers will do more to spur economic growth after Japan’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate and Australia unexpectedly kept its key rate unchanged.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 2.4 percent this week to 130.13, and climbed to a two-year high on Thursday. The gauge had its biggest quarterly increase of the past year in the three months to last month amid signs the US economy is regaining momentum and that China’s economic expansion will continue.
“Investor sentiment has been buoyed by the surprise decision by the Bank of Japan,” said Tim Schroeders, who helps manage about US$1 billion at Pengana Capital Ltd in Melbourne. “We’re starting to get a second wave of stimulus measures in major economies at a time when investors had previously thought the strength of the global recovery was waning.”
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 2.6 percent this week, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index gained 2.2 percent and South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.1 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 2 percent. The Bank of Japan pledged on Tuesday to expand its balance sheet by ￥5 trillion (US$60 billion), aiming to shore up the nation’s slowing economic recovery. It lowered the benchmark interest rate to a range of 0 to 0.1 percent from the previous 0.1 percent target.
China’s non-manufacturing industries expanded at a faster pace last month behind increases in construction and consumer spending. A purchasing managers’ index released last Sunday by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing rose to 61.7 from 60.1 in August.
Taiwanese share prices closed 0.48 percent lower on Friday amid lingering fears that a strengthening local currency could undermine Taiwan’s global competitiveness, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 39.73 points to 8,244.19 on turnover of NT$114.44 billion (US$3.72 billion).
“A stronger Taiwan dollar still weighed on market sentiment,” Hua Nan Securities (華南證券) analyst Stan Chang said. “Along with the upside of other Asian currencies against the greenback, the Taiwan dollar could not be isolated. The local bourse was affected accordingly.”
In other markets on Friday:
Manila edged down 0.20 percent, or 8.07 points, from Thursday to 4,236.98.
Wellington slipped 0.11 percent, or 3.42 points, from Thursday to end at 3,232.66.
Mumbai slipped 0.32 percent, or 65.06 points, from Thursday to 20,250.26.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
RSS