Asia Weekly

A rough ride for Asia

Fasten your seatbelts, Asia - the worst is yet to come. Investors battened down the hatches as regional markets continued their freefall after the UK's $87.6 billion bank bailout package underscored the divided response in Europe to the global financial crisis. Asian investors remained jittery after Wall Street tanked and the International Monetary Fund predicted....

Taipans in the News

A blow to South Korea's telecoms industry - The South Korean telecoms industry is "holding its collective breath" over the resignation of Cho Young-joo, CEO of mobile phone operator KT Freetel, following his arrest on bribery charges, writes Kim Tong-hyung in The Korea Times.

Two professors and their Nobel Prize

For the first time in history, Japanese researchers have shared a Nobel Prize, notes The Daily Yomiuri. Makoto Kobayashi, 64, and Toshihide Masukawa, 68, were awarded the prize for physics for their research on quarks conducted over two decades ago, along with US citizen Yoichiro Nambu.

The eureka moment came for Masukawa in 1972 as he mulled the four-quark-type theory he had constructed with Kobayashi while sitting in the bath, says Agence France-Presse, quoting Jiji Press. "I broke the spell when I stood up from the water," he said at the time.

Skype and TOM Online: Privacy breach is nothing new

Recent reports that Skype's Chinese partner TOM Online has monitored, filtered and recorded its users' text conversations have "ripped open an old wound for US Internet companies," says the South China Morning Post's Zhuang Pinghui. Skype quickly said it has fixed the problem,....“

Raise deposit insurance ceilings

The recent run on Bank of East Asia highlights how Hong Kong's financial authorities "have done nothing to bolster depositor protection," says Tom Holland in the South China Morning Post. Global banks are starting to "topple like ninepins," and foreign governments are "racing to increase the ceiling on" deposits covered by national insurance.

IPO Watch

IPO demand stalls - The global market for initial public offerings practically screeched to a halt in September, and the outlook for the remainder of the year is not promising. "Not a single IPO was priced either in Asia-Pacific or the US" last month, notes FinanceAsia's Anette Jönsson.

On the money

 It's a "lighthearted guide to exchange rates" that serves as a kind of "fair-value yardstick" for a currency's true value, says The Economist of its Big Mac Index, which tracks purchasing-power parity - in this case, the idea that exchange rates should fluctuate to make the US dollar price of McDonald's iconic hamburger the same in every country.

Shares to buy

Malaysia picks - In these uncertain times, investors should "go for defensive stocks with good dividend yields," argues The Star Online.

October Funds

Chinese equity funds performed poorly in August, says AsianInvestor's Rita Raagas De Ramos, quoting Lipper data. "Investors in China are focusing on post-Olympics economic and policy reforms," but China-focused funds have posted losses "in line with sharp falls in global markets worldwide." The iShares FTSE/Xinhua A50 China Tracker and Morgan Stanley China A Share Fund were the best of