Taiwan stocks surged, led by exporters such as Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), on optimism a rally in US equity markets will boost consumer confidence in the nation's second-largest overseas market.
The TAIEX rose 146.60, or 3 percent, to 5005.04 as almost 11 stocks rose for every two that fell. The total value of trade was NT$85.29 billion (US$2.5 billion).
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index had its biggest four-day jump in almost three decades, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its second 400-point rally in a week.
"The recent gains in the US will take some of that pressure off," said Hsieh Ching-hui, who manages NT$480 million (US$14.2 million) in stocks at KGI Securities Investment Trust Co (
Compal Electronics, which reported that second-quarter profit rose a third from the first quarter to NT$1.9 billion, surged NT$2, or 6.9 percent, to NT$31.20.
China Airlines Co (
CX Technology Co (錩新) rose NT$1.60, or 5.5 percent, to NT$30.80. The Taiwan maker of speaker parts for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Ford Motor Co and other customers, said first-half pre-tax profit rose almost three-tenths to NT$110 million as the company boosted sales and cut costs by increasing production at its Vietnam plant.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) rose NT$5.50, or 6.9 percent, to NT$85. The notebook computers maker said it raised NT$300.8 million (US$8.8 million) from an initial sale of shares in a display unit.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day