Asian stocks advanced to a seven-month high, completing a fourth straight year of gains.
Canon Inc, the world's largest digital-camera manufacturer, and LCD-maker AU Optronics Corp (
"The US economy has showed resilience and will remain a key buyer for Asian goods in 2007," said Jerry Chen, the Taipei-based head of funds management at First Global Investment Trust Co (
PHOTO: AP
"Electronic makers will benefit from demand for new gadgets like game consoles," he said.
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index rose 0.4 percent to 140.74 at 5:21pm in Tokyo, set for the highest close since May 11. The measure has risen 15 percent this year, its fourth annual gain. That's the longest stretch since calculations of that measure began in 1988.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 1.02 point to 17,225.83, completing the longest yearly winning streak since 1989, as Toyota Motor Corp surged to a record on the outlook for demand.
China's Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index climbed 3.1 percent to its highest ever, more than doubling this year.
China United Telecommunications Corp (
MSCI Asia-Pacific has climbed 21 percent since its low for the year on June 13 as the US Federal Reserve stopped raising interest rates and expansion in China and India, the world's fastest-growing major economies, powered demand for raw materials, goods and services.
All markets open in the region advanced yesterday, except in Hong Kong, India and Thailand. Stock measures in Australia and Singapore also rose to record highs. Japan, Australia and New Zealand had shortened hours in the last trading day of this year, while Indonesia and South Korea are closed.
Canon rose 0.8 percent to ?6,700 (US$56.35).
The stock surged 46 percent this year, when adjusted for a stock split. AU Optronics, the world's third-biggest liquid-crystal display maker, added 1.1 percent to NT$45.30. Venture Corp, Singapore's biggest producer of customized electronics, climbed 0.8 percent to S$13.50 (US$8.81).
The US Conference Board's index of consumer confidence climbed to 109 this month, the highest since April, from a revised reading of 105.3 for last month.
Meanwhile, sales of previously owned homes gained 0.6 percent to a 6.28 million annual rate last month, after rising 0.5 percent in October, the National Association of Realtors said.
"These latest US economic figures are an indication that consumers are willing to spend more," said James Chua, who helps manage US$200 million at Phillip Capital Management in Singapore. "That benefits Asia's exporters because we derive a large part of our sales from the US."
The Shanghai and Shenzhen index has risen 122 percent this year, making China the stock market performing best in Asia after Vietnam. The economy grew more than 10 percent for a fourth straight year and the IMF has estimated it will expand at that pace next year, double the projected 4.9 percent global growth rate.
China United, which controls the nation's second-largest cell-phone operator, advanced 3.8 percent to 4.68 yuan (US$0.60). ZTE Corp (中興通訊), China's biggest publicly traded phone-equipment maker, gained 2.7 percent to 38.93 yuan.
Xinhua said China will start high-speed cellular phone services next year in a "steady" manner because the country is ready for the third-generation network.
"The launch of a third-generation network is very positive to the telecom sector," said Lu Yizhen (
"China United and ZTE are the leaders in the industry" and will definitely benefit, he said.
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
DUBIOUS HONOR? A man in his 90s, who tested positive yesterday and is part of the Taoyuan hospital cluster, is the oldest person in Taiwan to have contracted COVID-19 Taiwan yesterday recorded six new imported cases of COVID-19 and two new domestic cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the local infections are linked to the cluster at Taoyuan General Hospital, which now totals 12 cases. One of the domestic cases is a man in his 90s, who was treated earlier this month at Taoyuan General Hospital and tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday last week, four days before he was discharged, the center said in a statement. After one of the nurses on the ward was confirmed on Saturday last week to have contracted COVID-19, the