Tokyo / Bloomberg Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., (HKEX) the most valuable exchange operator in Asia, said full-year earnings rose to a record on higher trading turnover. Net income jumped 54 percent to HK$7.96 billion ($1 billion) last year, up from HK$5.17 billion a year earlier, the exchange said in a statement on Wednesday. Revenue increased 36 percent to …

Taipei / DPA Workforce demand for the second quarter is expected to rise by 19,334 – a drastic 57-per-cent decline from last year’s 45,063, according to the Labour Ministry’s survey on domestic firms. It was the lowest growth in seven years for the April-June period. Stagnant global growth and lackluster export performance have contributed to companies’ lower willingness to hire, …

Tokyo / Bloomberg As stocks go, so does the performance of Japan’s giant pension fund. The $1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) provided some respite for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a $41 billion gain in the three months ended December, rebounding from the worst quarterly loss in data going back to April 2008. It will probably prove fleeting, …