Share prices closed 0.34 percent higher yesterday in solid trade as investors took their lead from Wall Street's overnight gains and continued foreign investor interest, dealers said.
Although the market lost ground early in the session as local investors continued cautious, their foreign counterparts remained positive in anticipation MSCI will increase its Taiwan weightings in May.
The TAIEX closed up 21.10 points at 6,143.49, off a high of 6,158.80, on turnover of NT$85.23 billion (US$2.7 billion). Risers led decliners 555 to 241, with 187 stocks unchanged. A total of 66 stocks closed limit-up and six limit-down.
"The market showed considerable resilience in light of a continuing sense of caution weighing on the upside, recovering from negative territory," said Wilson Lien, a deputy manager at Jih Sun Securities Investment Trust Co (
Thanks to short-covering, the main index stands a good chance of testing 6,200 points before the settlement of this month's stock index futures contracts next week, Lien added.
Whether recent gains can be sustained after that will depend on the ability of financial and other industrial stocks to catch up with bellwether electronics that have led the upturn, Lien said.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), the world's second-largest maker of made-to-order semiconductor chips, was down NT$0.20 at NT$20.80 after it confirmed it is being investigated for possible investment in China without government approval. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) was down NT$0.50 at NT$54.50.
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