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).
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
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