Stocks rose for the fourth day in five yesterday. Taiwan Semicon-ductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) led shares of some exporters higher after a US report showed consumer confidence climbed to a six-month high, boosting optimism for their overseas sales.
"An improved US economy will boost both demand for Taiwanese products and stocks," said Eric Yang (
AU Optronics Corp (
The TAIEX added 23.30, or 0.5 percent, to 4,474.41. The benchmark has risen 6.1 percent since May 22. About the same number of stocks gained as declined.
The Taiwan Futures Index rose 1.2 percent to 4,485.
"The index scored gains for over 300 points in five sessions, (so) it was natural for investors to pocket profits or stop loss," Fubon Securities Investment Service (富邦投顧) manager Norman Lee said.
"Technical resistance around the half-year moving average also convinced investors to adopt a short-term trading stance," he said.
TSMC rose NT$1.20, or 2.4 percent, to NT$50.50. Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) climbed NT$0.50, or 0.8 percent, to NT$67.50. AU Optronics, the nation's largest maker of liquid crystal displays, shed NT$0.30, or 1.5 percent, to NT$20.
HannStar lost NT$0.05, or 0.6 percent, to NT$8.15. HannStar expects the average price of the most widely used flat-panel display used in personal computers to peak at US$195 next month and decline as rivals boost supplies, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified company officials.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (
Nan Ya Plastics and Oriental Union Chemical plan to spend a combined NT$10.5 billion (US$302 million) to expand the output of a chemical used in antifreeze, a local newspaper said.
EVA Airways Corp (長榮) fell as much as 2.5 percent after it announced on Tuesday that it's cutting almost 80 percent of its flights to Japan next month. EVA closed unchanged at NT$11.90.
China Airlines Co (華航) fell NT$0.15, or 1.2 percent, to NT$12.95.
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