Share prices closed 0.29 percent lower yesterday in modest trade as political concerns outweighed foreign investor interest ahead of an increase in the country's weightings in key investment indices, dealers said.
They said there was some worry about the National Assembly election this weekend, and this may have dampened sentiment given current political strains arising from the heads of the two main opposition parties visiting China.
The National Assembly is expected to vote on amendments to the Constitution, a potentially fraught issue in relations with Beijing.
The TAIEX lost 17.05 points at 5,949.80, on turnover of NT$58.23 billion (US$1.86 billion).
"Investors obviously could not convince themselves to push the market above 6,000 points just yet," said Michael Hsu (
From a technical standpoint, the market has failed to breach resistance near its 144-day moving average for three consecutive sessions, he said.
"The contraction in turnover that accompanied such a lackluster showing in share prices clearly reflected a sense of caution ahead of Saturday's National Assembly polls," Hsu said.
He said investors would be ill-advised to place high bets on a continued buying spree among foreign investors.
"Mutual funds with passive management ... might defer their purchases until the last couple of sessions before the MSCI lead materializes," Hsu said.
Morgan Stanley is due to increase Taiwan's weightings in its closely followed investment indices later this month.
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