Asia Market Insight: April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

TSMC 's Net Falls on Weak Demand

TSMC said first-quarter net profit fell 94% on weak chip demand, but forecast higher margins and revenue in the current quarter, signaling conditions in the chip market are improving.

Taiwan Banks May Relieve Investors

Banks in Taiwan that distributed securities from PEMGroup are working on plans to compensate or otherwise protect clients who bought the products.

Citic Securities ' Net Profit Falls 40%

Net profit fell 40% in the first quarter at China's Citic Securities. It cited a drop in investment income and an impairment charge.

Vietnam Aims to Lure Miners

Vietnam is pressing ahead with its efforts to lure Chinese and other mining firms despite an increasingly bold environmental lobby and a deep-seated suspicion in Vietnam of the country's neighbor.

Canon 's Net Profit Plunges 83%

Canon's net profit fell 83% in the fiscal first-quarter due to a recession-driven drop in demand for electronics.

Forex Losses Weigh on SK Telecom

SK Telecom said its first-quarter net profit fell 17% from a year earlier mainly due to foreign-exchange losses stemming from its large overseas debt.

Indian Airport Workers Threaten Strike

Flights across India face widespread disruption as 15,000 airport employees nationwide have threatened to strike indefinitely starting Friday., more

Siemens Gets Order from Adani Power

Siemens and Siemens India said they have received a 13.80 billion rupees joint order from India's Adani Power to set up a power transmission system., more

Alleged Suicide Note in Ambani Plot

Police have no evidence that the alleged sabotage of the helicopter of telecom and media magnate Anil Ambani was an assassination attempt by business rivals., more

Bharati Shipyard Looking for Defense Orders

Bharati Shipyard is looking for more orders from India's defense sector to maintain its revenue growth., more

Educomp Profit Jumps 73%

India's Educomp Solutions said its net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter rose almost 73% from a year earlier., more

ONGC Crude Production Down 2.2%

Crude oil production at state-run Oil & Natural Gas contracted 2.2% in the financial year ended March 31 as the company struggled to maintain production at its aging oilfields., more

Probe Hunts Missing Satyam Millions

India's Serious Fraud Investigation Office is trying to trace $100 million from the sale of American depositary shares that can't be accounted for at Satyam Computer Services., more

India Aims to Buy 9 Million Doses of Tamiflu

India's federal government said it will buy nine million doses of the anti-viral drug -- Tamiflu -- within a week, to boost stocks following the global outbreak of swine flu., more

Tokyo, Taipei Lead Asian Indexes Higher

Asian shares pushed higher, with better-than-expected output data boosting Tokyo and increased cross-strait ties boosting Taipei. The Nikkei rose 4%, while Taiwan's index surged 6.8%.

Pang Released on $1 Million Bail

California financier Danny Pang was released on a $1 million bond and confined to his home with electronic monitoring.

Zhongwang IPO to Fetch $1.6 Billion

China Zhongwang Holdings, a manufacturer of aluminum products, said it is seeking to raise as much as $1.6 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings so far this year.

SinoPac Fund Disclosures

Taiwan's SinoPac distributed $146 million of securities that are still outstanding from PEMGroup, which is under investigation.

ADB Members Triple Funding

The Asian Development Bank said it is tripling its capital to $165 billion to respond to the global economic crisis and push its goal of cutting poverty in the region.

New Zealand Cuts Interest Rates

New Zealand's central bank cut the official cash rate by half a percentage point to a record low 2.50% because of the impact of the global economic crisis.

BOJ Warns Outlook Worsening

The Bank of Japan downgraded its outlook for economic growth to a record low level, with languishing external demand still decimating the export-dependent economy.