Shares fell slightly yesterday, in a correction from a one-month closing high the previous session, with financial companies dropping as unions resist the government's efforts to restructure the sector.
The TAIEX ended 0.1 percent lower at 6,103.42, after rising 1.4 percent last Friday.
"It's natural for the market to consolidate after Friday's big rally," said Derek Lam, a trader at Daiwa SMBC Cathay Securities.
About 2,000 bank union members gathered in Taipei on Saturday, threatening to strike in protest against government plans to merge state-run banks on fears over job losses. The rally followed the government's decision on Thursday to merge the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) with the Central Trust of China (中央信託局).
As a group, financial shares dropped 0.87 percent.
Electronics shares rose 0.2 percent on hopes of strong shipments in the current quarter. Sales of consumer electronics, such as digital cameras and digital music players, usually rise ahead of Christmas.
The government last week raised its economic growth forecast for this year to 3.80 percent from its August prediction of 3.65 percent because of a strong global demand outlook. Its fourth-quarter GDP growth estimate is 5.28 percent.
Panel maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics (奇美電) rose 0.8 percent to NT$38.50 on institutional investor buying on expectations of strong demand for flat-panel TVs.
Its larger rival, AU Optronics (
Decliners outnumbered advancers 559 to 442, and 190 stocks ended flat.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the