Asian stocks on Friday fell for the first time in six days, with the regional benchmark gauge paring the biggest weekly advance since July, as Japanese exporters retreated and a rally in Hong Kong equities lost steam.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.2 percent to 142.00 as of 4:10pm in Hong Kong, halting a five-day increase. The measure has advanced 3.6 percent this week.
The TOPIX lost 0.2 percent as Japanese markets resumed trading following a holiday on Thursday and the yen firmed against the US dollar after the Bank of Japan did not move deeper into negative interest-rate territory.
“There’s a very bullish case for equities considering that the [US Federal Reserve] is now expecting only two rate hikes in 2017,” said James Woods, a strategist at Rivkin Securities in Sydney. “There are uncertainties that could shake up some volatility in the market, including the US elections in November, but given where valuations are, I’d be a little cautious.”
Shares on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index traded at 13.8 times projected earnings for the next 12 months, near the highest level since June last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Shares in Taiwan closed higher on Friday on back of the momentum from previous sessions, as the bellwether electronics sector continued trending up amid optimism for shipments in the current peak season for the high-technology market, dealers said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most weighted stock on the local market, led the gains in the electronic sector and pushed the broader market higher throughout the session on the back of sound fundamentals, dealers said.
In Taipei, the TAIEX ended up 49.36 points, or 0.53 percent, at the day’s high of 9,284.62, off an early low of 9,228.66.
Turnover totaled NT$64.478 billion (US$2.05 billion).
“The late buying increased turnover by about NT$6 billion, largely focusing on high-tech stocks, in particular TSMC,” Hua Nan Securities (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) said. “Judging from the gains, I think that foreign institutional investors stood on the buy side again, as they still hold a large chunk of long position contracts in the futures market.”
Foreign institutional investors on Friday bought a net NT$4.77 billion worth of shares on the main board, according to the TWSE.
Su said foreign institutional investors held about 74,000 more long position contracts than short ones in the local futures market as of Thursday.
The electronics sector closed up 0.66 percent after TSMC rose 1.08 percent to close at a record high of NT$187.5.
The chipmaker, which supplies the A10 processor for Apple Inc’s latest iPhones, also saw its market capitalization rise to a record NT$4.86 trillion.
Among other Apple “concept stocks,” smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) gained 1.46 percent to close at NT$3,830 and metal casing producer Catcher Technology Co (可成) gained 2.1 percent to close at NT$267.
The financial sector, which also benefited from the late buying, ended up 0.42 percent. E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) rose 1.4 percent to close at NT$18.05 and Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) ended up 0.9 percent at NT$22.5.
The local main board gained 382.32 points this week, closing 4.29 percent higher.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese companies traded in Hong Kong sank 1 percent, paring the steepest weekly increase in two weeks, as banks and brokerages declined.
The Hang Seng Index and Shanghai Composite Index dropped at least 0.3 percent.
Thailand’s SET Index retreated 1.1 percent, trimming a second weekly advance. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 0.5 percent, while the Jakarta Composite Index slipped 0.3 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 1.1 percent to the highest close since Aug. 31 as telephone companies and healthcare shares advanced.
South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.2 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.3 percent.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
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