■ Chip sales balance LCD gains
Shares were flat yesterday, as selling of chip packaging stocks countered gains in LCD panel shares. The TAIEX fell 3.18 points, or 0.04 percent, to 6531.59, on turnover of NT$113.22 billion (US$3.42 billion). "LCD stocks were riding on hopes that strong demand for LCD televisions during the Christmas holidays will likely boost earnings growth for Taiwan's panel makers," said Jeffrey Cheng, an analyst with Yuanta Core Pacific Capital Man-agement (元大京華投顧). Panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) rose 2.2 percent to NT$48, while Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) advanced 4.8 percent to NT$44.
■ Hua Nan approves share sale
Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控) said its board has approved a proposal to sell about 157 million shares in Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) as the government attempts to reduce the number of lenders under its control. The shares represent a 3.7 percent stake in Taiwan Business Bank, Hua Nan said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Monday.
■ NT dollar drops
The New Taiwan dollar fell for the first day in three on concern the central bank will sell the currency to maintain export competitiveness with Japanese rival goods, traders said. The yen's 8.5 percent decline against the NT dollar this year makes the nation's products less competitive abroad, they added. The local currency declined NT$0.034 to close at NT$33.132 against the US dollar yesterday.
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