Shares were mixed in Asia on Friday, although markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong declined a day after the Chinese Communist Party marked its centenary with tough talk by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
On Wall Street on Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 touched a new record in anticipation of a positive US jobs report, which on Friday showed that nonfarm payrolls rose by 850,000 jobs last month.
Recent data have provided encouraging signs of a steady recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: AP
In Taiwan, the TAIEX ended down 3.79 points, or 0.02 percent, at 17,710.15, after moving between 17,676.98 and 17,795,88. Turnover totaled NT$607.080 billion (US$21.69 billion). It posted a weekly gain of 1.18 percent.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.27 percent to finish at 28,783.28 on Friday, but dropped 0.97 percent from a week earlier, while the broader TOPIX rose 0.88 percent to 1,956.31, declining 0.32 percent week-on-week.
South Korea’s KOSPI was little changed, inching down 0.01 percent to 3,281.78, and posting a weekly decline of 0.64 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.59 percent to 7,308.6, inching up 0.01 percent for the week.
However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.8 percent to 28,310.42, down 1.98 percent from a week earlier, while the Shanghai Composite Index declined 1.95 percent to 3,518.76, losing 2.46 percent week-on-week.
In a speech on Thursday, Xi said anyone who tries to bully China “will face broken heads and bloodshed.”
Xi appeared to be hitting back at the US and others that have criticized China’s trade and technology polices, military expansion and human rights record. The harsh rhetoric also appeared aimed at a domestic audience, but coming at a time of sharp tension with Washington, it struck an ominous tone.
Investors also anticipate a pullback in central bank support for markets in China, analysts said.
Fitch Solutions Inc forecast in a report that Japan’s economy would start to recover as growing numbers of people are vaccinated for COVID-19. Japan’s vaccine rollout pace is about the same as the rest of Asia’s, with about 10 percent of the population fully vaccinated. That lags the US and much of Europe.
“We do note that the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic did create a significantly low base from which to grow from,” Fitch said. “The recovery in retail sales and consumer confidence will rely on the ability of the government to vaccinate enough of the population, so as to allow for the gradual easing of restrictions.”
Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
RSS