Asian stocks fell this week, dragging the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index to its biggest weekly decline in three amid Japanese share sales, while companies including Sony Corp fueled profit concerns.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc sank 7.3 percent after announcing Japan’s biggest public sale of additional common shares. Hitachi Ltd, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average’s fourth-largest company by sales, plunged 14 percent after revealing its plan to sell securities. Sony Corp, which makes the PlayStation 3 game console and Bravia televisions, slid 5.5 percent as it pushed back profitability targets.
“What you’re seeing is very much Japan-related,” said Nader Naeimi, a Sydney-based strategist at AMP Capital Investors, which holds US$75 billion in assets. “Everywhere else in Asia you have a very strong growth profile, but Japan has a lot of long-term structural issues that still need to be tackled.”
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index fell 1.2 percent to 116.91 this week, the steepest weekly retreat since the five days to Oct. 30. Seven of the 10 heaviest drags on the gauge were Japanese shares, including Mitsubishi UFJ.
Japan’s TOPIX index slid 3.2 percent, extending its drop to a fourth week. The gauge has fallen 2.4 percent this year, making it the only loser among the world’s 10 biggest stock markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The KOSPI Index jumped 3.1 percent, breaking a five-week losing streak.
Taiwanese share prices are expected to stay in a narrow range in the upcoming week amid concerns over further Wall Street volatility, dealers said on Friday.
Large-cap electronic firms may remain weak as investors fear US high-tech stocks will suffer more declines on uncertainty over the industrial outlook, they said.
Sentiment has turned cautious ahead of the scheduled release of third-quarter economic data on Thursday, which will provide a clearer picture of the local climate, they added.
The market is expected to encounter heavy pressure as it moves closer to 7,800 points next week, while any downside pressure may be cushioned at around 7,600, dealers said.
For the week to Friday, the TAIEX rose 17.34 points, or 0.23 percent, to 7,682.97 after a 2.71 percent increase a week earlier.
Other markets on Friday:
SINGAPORE: Up 0.10 percent from Thursday. The Straits Times Index added 2.75 points to 2,761.54.
BANGKOK: Down 0.74 percent from Thursday. The Stock Exchange of Thailand fell 5.17 points to 695.25.
KUALA LUMPUR: Down 0.18 percent from Thursday. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 2.29 points to 1,274.36.
JAKARTA: Up 0.75 percent from Thursday. The Jakarta Composite Index rose 18.57 points to 2,487.36.
MANILA: Down 0.47 percent from Thursday. The index lost 14.57 points to 3,068.73.
MUMBAI: Up 1.41 percent from Thursday. The 30-share SENSEX rose 236.2 points to 17,021.85.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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