Asian stocks advanced for the third week as higher retail sales and expanding manufacturing activities in the US boosted confidence in the global economic recovery.
Nintendo Co, the maker of Wii gaming consoles, surged 16 percent after reporting increased US sales. PetroChina Co (中石油), China’s biggest oil producer, gained 8.2 percent after crude oil rallied to its highest-level in 14 months. Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (和記電訊國際) jumped 32 percent in Hong Kong after its parent offered to buy out the company.
“Demand is on a steady recovery worldwide,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist in Tokyo at Daiwa Asset Management Co, which oversees the equivalent of US$94 billion. “The market and economy will be better in 2010.”
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 3.1 percent to 124.22 in the first week of trading for this year. The gauge climbed 34 percent last year, the biggest annual gain since 2003, as central banks cut borrowing costs and governments boosted spending to drag their economies out of recession.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.4 percent this week on speculation overseas earnings will climb as the yen weakened to its lowest level against the US dollar since August following comments by Finance Minister Naoto Kan.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.9 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.5 percent on concern government steps to curb lending growth and property speculation will slow expansion in the world’s third-largest economy.
Optimism for global growth grew this week as the US government reported a 1.1 percent increase in factory orders that was more than twice as much as economists anticipated and Retail Metrics Inc said store sales at US retailers last month climbed 3 percent, the biggest gain since April 2008.
Taiwan’s exports climbed last month at the fastest pace since February 1995, the government said on Thursday.
Nintendo surged 16 percent to ¥25,580. US sales of the motion-sensing Wii gaming console exceeded 3 million last month, the Kyoto-based company said on Jan. 6.
The Shanghai Composite Index completed its first weekly decline in three. China’s move during the week to raise the cost of three-month bills will probably lead to the nation’s first interest-rate increase in almost three years by September, a survey of economists showed.
Taiwan’s TAIEX index rose 43.50, or 0.5 percent, from Thursday to 8,280.90 at the close of Taipei trading on Friday. It added 1.1 percent this week, the third straight week of gains.
Plastic companies rose on higher prices for their raw materials used to make plastics. Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) gained 0.9 percent to NT$70.60, the highest since June 2008.
The companies may benefit after prices of polyethylene surged 6.7 percent on Thursday owing to a shortage at Saudi Basic Industries Corp, KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) said in a morning note on Friday.
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s largest maker of the metal, gained 2.5 percent to NT$34.85, the highest since Sept. 19, 2008, amid speculation that producers in China and Taiwan may raise prices, said David Li (李衍磐), a trader at Daiwa Securities SMBC-Cathay Co (大和國泰).
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
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.
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