After foreign investors dumped shares for 16 consecutive trading days, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (
Stocks yesterday ended sharply higher after Wall Street's overnight gains and the government's announcement on Tuesday that it would use the National Stabilization Fund (
The TAIEX closed up 302.9 points, or 5.5 percent, at 5,860.58, with a turnover of NT$92.28 billion (US$2.74 billion). The index's 6.9 percent two-day gain was the biggest advance since Oct. 17, 2002.
Overseas investors yesterday sold a net NT$3.87 billion of shares, while domestic investment-trust investors and proprietary traders bought a net NT$5.81 billion, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
At a press conference held yesterday, Lin said that the recent fluctuations in local stock market have been in line with bourses elsewhere in Asia, except some trading days, when domestic political unrest intensified following the March 20 presidential election.
He also downplayed the up-and-down of foreign stock investments, saying that US$20 billion in foreign capital has flown into the country since last October while only US$2 billion has left the country.
The government announced on Tuesday night that it authorized the National Stablization Fund steering committee, which has NT$130 billion on hand, to buy stocks at the "appropriate time."
But Lin yesterday stayed mum on whether the committee was already using the fund to buy shares amid a stock market rally the day before President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) second inauguration.
``I won't comment,'' he said.
The Cabinet created the NT$500 billion fund in 1998 to buy shares in the event the stock market should tumble sharply on non-economic factors, such as military tensions with China or natural disasters.
``The government's announcement that the fund could come into the market at any time did bring in some positive impact on market sentiment,'' said Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬), head of National Central University's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development.
But a key to lessening investors' concerns over political uncertainty lies on Chen's inauguration address, Chu told ERA News yesterday.
On the local bourse yesterday, gains came from all sectors, with the technology subindex up 5.4 percent, transport 6.6 percent higher and finance up 6 percent.
Chip giants Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
Makers of the flat panels also rose across the board, with AU Optronics Corp (
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],”
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
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