Stocks fell, led by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), after the government yesterday ordered banks to block customers with fever or flu-like symptoms from entering their branches to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
``Taiwan is having difficulty controlling the spread of SARS,'' said Simon Chao (趙永宏), who manages US$17 million at President Investment Trust Corp (統一投信).
"Investors are getting panicky and started dumping shares at a alarming rate," he said.
The TAIEX fell 52.25, or 1.2 percent, to 4,148.07. The benchmark shed 4 percent this month, its third monthly decline. MSCI Taiwan futures for May delivery in Singapore shed 1.1 percent to 178.50. The Taiwan Futures Index fell 1.4 percent to 4,135.
Fubon fell NT$0.90, or 3.6 percent, to NT$23.80.
Cathay Financial lost NT$0.80, or 2 percent, to NT$38.90.
Separately, 10 companies will be added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc indexes, while six will be removed, the index compiler said.
Eva Airways Corp (
Mediatek Inc. rose as much as 3.5 percent to NT$285. The two stocks will be added to the MSCI indexes from May 31.
Acer Inc was unchanged at NT$31.70 after falling as much as 1 percent. Profit in the first quarter plunged 84 percent to NT$660 million from a year ago, the company said in a statement. Sales, though, climbed to NT$13 billion from NT$5.4 billion a year ago.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) fell NT$1, or 3.2 percent, to NT$30.20 after it said first-quarter profit fell 25 percent because its computer-memory chip making unit turned to a loss. Net income dropped to NT$3.55 billion in the first three months of 2003 from NT$4.72 billion a year ago, according to the company's statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Sales rose 22 percent to NT$28.6 billion.
Computer-notebook maker Quanta Computer Inc (
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) gained NT$2.7, or 6 percent, to NT$47.80. The company yesterday forecast prices, shipments of silicon wafers and factory usage will increase in the current quarter.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts