The Ministry of Finance yesterday reported the balance of its National Stabilization Fund, which posted NT$26.56 billion in losses as of last month.
"As of December 31, [the fund] generated NT$22.25 billion in outstanding losses and realized NT$4.31 billion in actual losses," the fund's management committee said a written statement released yesterday.
According to the committee, the NT$22.25 billion in losses were calculated in accordance with the purchased shares' average prices last month when the TAIEX's benchmark leveled around 5,800 points.
During the committee's quarterly meeting on Monday, members expressed optimism for an upcoming economic recovery, which they believe is likely to prop up stock prices in the near future.
"The outstanding losses should be further alleviated once the local economy rebounds," the statement said, adding that several economic estimates projected by major research institutes have indicated a rosier economic outlook.
The Cabinet created the NT$500 billion fund in 1998 to buy shares should the stock market tumble sharply on non-economic factors such as military tensions with China or natural disasters. The fund has been activated during times of tension with China, presidential elections and the temporary scraping of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant construction project.
In its statement the committee said that the government has used the fund to buy a total of NT$174.3 billion worth of shares, of which NT$102.9 billion worth have been sold.
According to the statement, those sales reaped NT$17 billion in profit. However, since the fund has to pay banks NT$20.5 billion in interest, the fund's balance went into the red.
In light of the March presidential election, opposition legislators have expressed concern that the government might activate the fund to interfere in the stock market during the election campaign.
The committee hasn't made any official response to such speculation. Chinese-language media reports have quoted unidentified committee members as saying the committee would not sell any shares before the election.
The media has also speculated that the fund would sell all its shares when the benchmark hits between 6,800 to 7,000 points to help it break even.
In response, Vice Minister of Finance Yang Tze-kaing (
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained