Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index posting its biggest weekly rally in three months after the US’ unemployment rate slid to its lowest level since before the peak of the financial crisis.
In Taipei, the TAIEX posted its biggest weekly advance since March, spurring the longest declining streak in benchmark five-year notes in 18 months, after HSBC Holdings PLC and Markit Economics’ purchasing managers’ index showed that domestic manufacturing expanded by the most in four months last month.
The TAIEX climbed 2.2 percent for the week and rose to 9,550.11 on Thursday, the highest level since November 2007.
On Friday, the benchmark index fell 0.17 percent, or 16.18 points, to 9,510.05, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) added 0.37 percent to NT$135.0 and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) fell 0.96 percent to NT$103.
“The stock market’s outlook is still quite good,” said Tobby Lin, a Taipei-based fixed-income trader at Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券).
Elsewhere in the region, Japan’s TOPIX rose 0.5 percent on Friday, while South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.1 percent, New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained 0.4 percent and the S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.6 percent.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index was little changed, as was Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, which added less than 0.1 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese stocks traded in the territory advanced 0.3 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2 percent and India’s S&P BSE SENSEX gained 0.5 percent.
Companies that do business in the US rose, with HTC Corp (宏達電) jumping 1.1 percent to NT$138.50 in Taipei after returning to profit as the release of its marquee One M8 smartphone and a cut in marketing costs helped stem the effects of a continued decline in sales.
In Tokyo, automaker Mazda Motor Corp gained 1.2 percent to ￥493 this week and convenience store operator Seven & I Holdings Co added 2 percent to ￥4,447 after first-quarter operating profit rose 5.1 percent annually to ￥77.5 billion (US$760 million).
Other firms with business in the US that gained this week included Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路), which added 7.3 percent in Hong Kong after securing orders from Qualcomm Inc to make chips for the world’s largest supplier of smartphone processors, while Techtronic Industries Co, a maker of power tools, added 1.9 percent to HK$24.80 and Sands China Ltd advanced 2.4 percent to HK$61.15 after HSBC raised its target price on the casino operator to HK$70.70.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.4 percent to 147.59 to record a 1.7 percent weekly gain on Friday, the largest such advance since the period ended on April 4. The measure is in its eighth straight weekly rally, the longest streak since 2012.
The Asia-Pacific gauge traded at 13.4 times estimated earnings at the last close, compared with 16.7 for the S&P 500 and 15.7 for the STOXX Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The [US] jobs report was a positive surprise and it confirmed the ongoing recovery in the US labor market,” Nomura Holdings Inc equity market strategist Masaaki Yamaguchi said. “That’s adding a tailwind to the market.”
In other markets on Friday:
Wellington gained 0.42 percent, or 21.51 points, from Thursday to close on 5,188.91.
Manila ended on 6,962.28 after rising 0.91 percent, or 62.97 points.
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