Stocks fell yesterday, led by petrochemical makers such as Formosa Plastics Corp (
Petrochemical makers buy crude to process into plastic raw materials such as styrene monomer and polyvinyl chloride.
Television footage of captured and killed US soldiers also damped investor confidence.
"Investors are worried the war on Iraq might not progress smoothly," Tom Fu (
"The weekend battle footage showed the grim side of war," he said.
The TAIEX shed 16.24, or 0.4 percent, to 4,570.68 by the close. MSCI Taiwan futures for March delivery in Singapore fell 1.1 percent to 196.40. The futures index fell 0.9 percent to 4,541. About five stocks declined for every four that gained.
Formosa Plastics fell NT$0.50 to NT$45.60. Taiwan Styrene Monomer Corp (台苯), a plastic feedstock maker, fell NT$0.40 to NT$29.60.
Crude oil rose as much as 2.9 percent after US Marines engaged in the fiercest fighting of the war in Iraq at the town of Nasiriyah, raising concern protracted hostilities may disrupt supplies from the Middle East.
Some exporters such as United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) and Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子) rose on expectation export orders and factory production increased in February as China bought more cellphone components, computers chips and steel.
Export orders rose 9.9 percent from a year earlier to US$11.2 billion after a 15 percent gain in January, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
UMC, the world's second-largest maker of computer chips on a subcontracting basis, rose NT$0.10, or 0.4 percent, to NT$21.70. Delta Electronics, the world's biggest maker of computer power-supply systems, rose NT$0.60, or 1.5 percent, to NT$39.80.
China Development Financial Holding Corp (
China Airlines Co (華航), advanced NT$0.10, or 0.8 percent, to NT$13.50. China Air and rival EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) are raising freight rates for Europe-bound cargo flights by as much as 50 percent because of strong demand, a Chinese-language newspaper reported on Sunday.
EVA Airways rose NT$0.15, to NT$12.30.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the