Asian stocks fell this week, just the fourth weekly retreat this year for the regional benchmark, as the G20 warned Europe’s debt crisis still threatened global growth and as US economic data showed the recovery in the world’s largest economy was slowing.
Technology exporters led declines in Asia this week as companies from IBM Corp, the world’s biggest computer-services provider, to SanDisk Corp, reported disappointing results.
TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), a Taiwanese supplier for Apple Inc, led declines, falling 16 percent this week. Taipei’s benchmark index retreated 3.6 percent to close at 7,507.15 this week, its biggest drop since November last year.
HTC Corp (宏達電), Asia’s No. 2 smartphone maker, slid 13 percent to NT$462, as it reported its biggest drop in profit since its listing a decade ago earlier this month.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.7 percent to 124.21, erasing last week’s 0.1 percent gain. The gauge fell four out of five days this week. It has alternated between weekly gains and losses since March 2, when it finished a record 11-week winning streak. It has risen about 9 percent this year.
“I still think Europe overall is just buying time for its problem, which cannot be resolved in the short term,” said Alex Au, Hong Kong-based managing director of Richland Capital Management.
“From time to time in the next few years I think we will see panic situations. The market is very thin and liquidity is low, so if someone wants to push the market down it won’t be too difficult. Investors are holding a lot of cash,” he said.
Asia’s benchmark equity gauge has retreated 3.7 percent from the start of last month on speculation stock gains have outpaced the prospects for earnings growth after the index climbed 13 percent in the first two months of the year.
Shares on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index are valued at an average of 12.7 times estimated earnings, compared with 13.1 on the S&P 500 Index and 10.8 for the STOXX Europe 600 Index.
South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 1.7 percent, led by petrochemical companies after LG Chem Ltd missed earnings estimates.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.8 percent this week, even as exports grew at the fastest pace in a year last month and the yen fell against most of its major counterparts.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 1.5 percent this week amid speculation China’s policymakers would lower lending curbs to boost growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index gained 2 percent this week.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1 percent as UBS AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co upgraded Australian mining stocks amid signs of improving economic growth in China. The lagging performance of the shares boosted views from strategists at the Swiss and US brokerages.
In other markets on Friday:
Manila fell 0.33 percent, or 16.82 points from Thursday, to 5,156.46.
Wellington fell 0.25 percent, or 8.96 points from Thursday, to 3,516.23.
Mumbai slid 0.74 percent, or 129.87 points from Thursday, to 17,373.84.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS