Share prices closed 0.91 percent higher yesterday as Wall Street's sharp overnight gains supported a technical rebound after recent sustained weakness, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 52.62 points at 5,835.37 on turnover of NT$45.17 billion (US$1.42 billion).
The spotlight was on the electronics companies, which picked up sharply after strong gains at their US counterparts.
Risers led decliners 485 to 231, while 246 stocks were unchanged.
The electronics sector was up 1.76 percent and financial up 0.19 percent, while petrochemicals fell 0.51 percent.
"Wall Street's gains sparked a technical rebound in the local bourse after recent weakness," said Tom Tang, president at Kai Yuan Securities Investment Consultant Co.
Several stocks previously hit by concerns over the negative impact of new accounting rules recovered strongly to take the index higher.
"There were expectations of support from major shareholders for those firms after the previous slump," Tang said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) closed up NT$1.60 at NT$49.20 and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) was up NT$0.20 at NT$19.20.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) fell NT$0.30 to NT$23.80 after last year's results and guidance that there will be a 40 percent to 45 percent increase in demand this year against a 35 percent to 40 percent expansion in supply.
Amid the dull sentiment prolonged from last year, Deutsche Bank painted a rosy outlook for the investors by predicting a 12-month target of 6,617 points in a report released yesterday.
"Taiwan offers one of the best returns in Asia," the bank said.
The financial institution suggested a bottom-up valuation approach as the most effective investment strategy for this year, owing to a lack of demonstrable earnings catalysts and macro trends.
The bank's five top buys include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, Eva Airways Corp (長榮航空), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華酒店), which runs Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, and Johnson Health Tech Co (喬山健康科技), a top-five player in the US$5 billion fitness-equipment market worldwide.
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