The TAIEX index fell for a seventh day, its longest losing streak since December 2002, while the New Taiwan dollar also had its lowest close since January on concern higher crude oil prices will hamper the country's economic growth.
The TAIEX fell 163.42, or 3 percent, to 5,325.68, its lowest since last August. Futures for July delivery dropped 3.8 percent to 5,300.
The NT dollar weakened 0.2 percent to NT$33.935 against its US counterpart on the Taipei foreign exchange market, its weakest close since Jan. 2. Overseas fund managers since July 12 sold a net US$85.8 million of Taiwan's shares, according to Bloomberg data.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) declined by its daily limit leading other flat-panel display makers lower after Merrill Lynch & Co advised investors to sell the stock, citing falling product prices.
AU Optronics fell 6.8 percent to NT$41.10. Rival Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) also drop-ped by its daily limit, slumping 6.9 percent to NT$46.10.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) led declines among chipmakers after an industry report showed equipment orders at North American companies slowed. TSMC shed 1.7 percent to NT$41.50. Rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) slip-ped 3.2 percent to NT$21.
China Airlines Ltd (華航) fell 5.1 percent to NT$16.80. The government has decided to name Chiang Yao-chung (江耀宗) as the airline's chairman.
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
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