■ LCD stocks lead shares higher
Shares rose yesterday as liquid crystal display panel stocks gained ground on suspected buying by government funds.
The TAIEX rose 14.85 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,945.05, on turnover of NT$55.11 billion (US$1.66 billion). The index has dropped about 2 percent in the last three sessions, with foreign investors dumping shares on worries about weakness in the local currency, the New Taiwan dollar.
The NT dollar's depreciation has prompted foreign investors to sell a net NT$21.71 billion (US$652.23 million) worth of local shares in the past three sessions.
Despite the main board's rise, analysts said the continued thin trading value indicates confidence hasn't been restored.
■ S&P to up Taiwan Ratings stake
Standard & Poor's said it will increase its stake in Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) to 51 percent by buying shares from Taiwanese investors.
"This is a major step forward in Standard & Poor's strategy for growth in Asia," Tom Schiller, the company's executive managing director for Asia Pacific, said in a statement.
S&P expects the closer partnership will further enhance the transparency and efficiency of the Taiwan capital market for investors, and facilitate new opportunities for capital raising for Taiwan issuers, Schiller said.
S&P, which has been a 50 percent shareholder since Taiwan Ratings was founded in 1997, said the purchase of an extra 1 percent will be completed next month. No financial details were provided.
■ BASF eyes China market
BASF AG, the world's biggest chemical company, said it aims to make China account for 10 percent of global sales and earnings by 2010, taking advantage of rising demand in the fastest-growing major economy.
By 2015, 50 percent of BASF's Asian business will come from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, board member Andreas Kreimeyer said yesterday. The company plans to invest about 20 percent of its group capital expenditure in Asia "over the next few years," he said.
BASF may invest US$1.2 billion by 2009 in Asia, with "a major part" of that in China.
"In 2015, China will still be a net importer of chemicals, which means there are opportunities for products from BASF," Chairman Juergen Hambrecht told reporters in China's eastern city of Nanjing.
■ Uni-President may list in HK
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), the nation's biggest food company, may sell shares in its China food business and list it in Hong Kong to raise funds for expansion said company spokesman Simon Hung (洪士民).
Uni-President has invested US$350 million in China's food industry since 1991 through President Enterprises (China) Investment Co. Ltd, Hung said. The company makes and markets instant noodles, beverages, edible oils and meat products in the world's most populous country.
"We are studying the feasibility of listing our China food business in Hong Kong,"Hung said in a telephone interview, "There's no concrete timetable at this moment."
■ NT dollar drops to new low
The New Taiwan dollar fell to the weakest against its US counterpart in almost 11 months after foreign investors sold local shares, spurring speculation funds will continue to flow out.
The NT dollar fell for a fifth day on concern fund managers abroad are shifting out cash as rising oil prices threaten to slow economic growth.
The local currency closed NT$0.082 lower at NT$33.282 against its US counterpart on the Taipei foreign exchange market. It traded as low as NT$33.305, the weakest since Nov. 4.
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