The TAIEX rose yesterday, completing its best month in almost two years.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC,
Exporters such as Asustek Computer Inc (
The index rose 63.96, or 1 percent, to 6,203.47.
About three stocks gained for every two that declined.
The TAIEX advanced 7.6 percent last month, its biggest monthly gain since January last year.
"A more open cross-strait policy will benefit many Taiwanese companies that have invested in China and cut costs from direct transport links," said Charles Chen, who manages the equivalent of US$150 million at JF Asset Management Co in Taipei.
"The US reports help boost exporters as fourth-quarter consumer confidence looks strong," he said.
Taiwan may ease restrictions on cross-strait investments and direct charter flights after elections, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information.
The government may also allow more Chinese tourists to visit, the newspaper said.
TSMC, the world's largest supplier of made-to-order chips, rose NT$1.70, or 2.9 percent, to NT$59.50. Hon Hai, the nation's largest electronics company by sales, gained NT$5, or 3 percent, to NT$169.50.
Asustek Computer, the nation's largest maker of boards that connect the chips in personal computers, rose NT$0.90, or 1 percent, to NT$95.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the biggest notebook-computer maker globally, added NT$1.30, or 2.6 percent, to NT$51.40.
Meanwhile, the New Taiwan (NT) dollar advanced against the US dollar yesterday on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, rising NT$0.04 to close at NT$33.516. A total of US$805 million changed hands during the day's trading.
The NT dollar had its first monthly advance in seven after overseas funds increased investment in stocks.
The currency rose 0.1 percent last month as fund managers from overseas were net buyers of Taiwanese shares every day for the first month in at least five years.
Investors overseas last month purchased a net NT$180 billion (US$5.4 billion) of the country's equities.
"Stock inflows this month have been strengthening the Taiwan dollar," said Benson Liu, a currency trader at International Bank of Taipei (
"That will continue to help the currency," Liu said.
The NT dollar had risen to NT$33.516 against its US counterpart as of yesterday, and may strengthen to NT$33.45 by the end of this week, Liu said.
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