Stocks advanced yesterday after lawmakers compromised on a bill allowing the public to vote on constitutional amendments that don't seek to change the nation's flag, name or political status.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) led shares of the nation's largest companies higher. The TAIEX rose 31.2, or 0.5 percent, to 5,771.77. The benchmark lost 4.5 percent this month, its biggest monthly decline since February.
About two stocks rose for every one that fell. The Taiwan Futures Index shed 0.2 percent to 5,808.
"The compromised version of the bill cleared investors' immediate concerns over accelerating cross-straits tension," said Celine Chiang (
But traders were mixed about the market's outlook for next month.
Some argued it was time to buy into next year's improved economic prospects now that the referendum issue appeared to have passed without precipitating a crisis.
"Now we can look forward to buying into next year's story in December," said Primasia Securities analyst George Wu (吳裕良).
Others, however, said the market had run out of steam.
Jeff Kao, an equity analyst at Allianz Dresdner Asset Management, said the market lacked the leads to sustain its sharp upward momentum.
"It's basically a conservative market at the moment," he said.
TSMC, the world's largest supplier of made-to-order chips, added NT$0.50, or 0.8 percent, to NT$63.50.
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