Asian property stocks were buoyed this week as Hong Kong developers advanced on speculation China will maintain stimulus spending, while technology-related companies declined.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell 2.6 percent to 121.62 this week. The gauge has climbed 69 percent from a five-year low on March 9 as better-than-estimated economic and earnings reports increase optimism that the global economy is recovering.
“Investors haven’t forgotten the nightmare we had last year and are quick to sell when they get anxious,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co, which oversees about US$56 billion in Tokyo. “Company profits are gradually returning, but we need to discern whether the stock price already reflects the improvement or not.”
China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed for the third straight week after central bank adviser Fan Gang said the government should maintain its stimulus spending for another year. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.5 percent as the nation’s central bank signaled more interest-rate increases as the economy improves.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.3 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 3 percent.
Reports from China this week showed industrial production and retail sales grew at a faster pace last month. Still, the Chinese economy expanded 8.9 percent in the third quarter, less than the 9 percent expected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
Taiwanese share prices are expected to encounter selling next week as the bellwether high-tech sector remains pressured on profit-taking, dealers said Friday.
Investors, in particular, are watching closely how large-cap electronics firms will report their earnings for the third quarter, aiming to pin down the path of global demand recovery, they said.
The market’s upside is expected to be limited with a cap at around 7,700 points next week, while any downside pressure may see technical support at 7,400, dealers said.
For the week to Friday, the weighted index fell 65.82 points, or 0.85 percent, to 7,649.28 after a 1.89 percent increase a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$123.52 billion (US$3.81 billion), compared with NT$133.12 billion the week before.
“Institutional investors’ holdings in electronic firms remain high. It is possible for them to continue to cut positions for profit,” Mega Securities Co (兆豐證券) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
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