Asian markets were mixed on Friday after major indices edged higher on Wall Street, preserving their gains for the week.
Hong Kong and Shanghai fell, while Taipei, Sydney and Seoul advanced. Tokyo was closed for a holiday.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell 0.94 percent to 200.92 points, down 1.9 percent for the week.
Surges in COVID-19 cases around the region are prompting governments to tighten COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that are expected to slow business activity and keep travel to a minimum.
Thailand reported a daily record of 14,575 cases, with 114 deaths, as a stricter set of limits went into effect in many areas.
The country’s central bank has said the latest, worst outbreak could cause the economy to contract by 2 percent this year, instead of the recovery it had earlier forecast.
The SET in Bangkok fell 0.4 percent on Friday, down 1.8 percent for the week.
The TAIEX in Taipei on Friday inched up less than 0.1 percent to 17,572.92 points, but lost 1.58 percent weekly.
In Seoul, the KOSPI on Friday rose 0.1 percent, losing 0.7 percent weekly, while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.11 percent, adding 0.6 percent for the week.
Hong Kong stocks fell on Friday, dragged down by technology, education and property shares, as deepening concerns over Beijing’s tighter regulations weighed on sentiment.
The Hang Seng Index fell 1.5 percent, down 2.44 percent weekly, while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.7 percent, bringing its weekly loss to 3 percent.
Morgan Stanley said in a note that investors should monitor actual earnings results from Chinese companies within the next few weeks to reconcile positive corporate alerts and declining consensus expectations.
“We suggest more patience ... for better calibration of market expectations among other near-term market overhangs including regulatory uncertainties, policy direction debate, and geopolitical tension,” Morgan Stanley said.
China is to crack down on after-school tutoring businesses and ban listings of tutoring institutions, according to a soft copy of a government document circulating on social media. Reuters was unable to immediately verify its authenticity.
The Hang Seng Tech Index slumped nearly 3 percent to the lowest closing level since October last year.
“Asian equities traded sideways on Friday, mirroring choppy price action on Wall Street overnight,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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