■ Funds did no wrong: FSC
The Financial Supervisory Commission denied that four major state-run funds were behind the stock market's slide on Monday, after opposition lawmakers accused the funds of having dumped shares.
The commission's spokesperson Susan Chang (張秀蓮) said at a press briefing yesterday that the government's four major state funds were net sellers on Monday morning as they sold NT$300 million (US$9.36 million) worth of stocks.
But the funds became net buyers in the afternoon by purchasing some NT$160 million worth of stocks, just before the benchmark index began to drop.
For the whole of Monday, the four major state funds net sold NT$130 million to NT$140 million in stocks, while the TAIEX slumped 244.37 points or 3.5 percent during the day.
Chang reiterated that the fundamentals of the stock market and the nation's economy remain good.
■ FTA talks wrap up
Taiwan, El Salvador and Honduras have concluded the first round of negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA), which is expected to be inked by the end of this year, according to a report by the Central News Agency which cited anonymous officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) led a delegation to El Salvador for talks at the end of last month. The negotiations went smoothly as the three parties reached agreement on almost all terms, the report said.
The second round of the FTA negotiations will begin in the middle of next month, with the rest to be completed by the end of the year, it said.
■ Tourist cash cow forecast
Chinese tourists will create business opportunities in Taiwan worth an estimated NT$30 billion (US$935.7 million) per year if travel restrictions on Chinese citizens are lifted, according to a report released yesterday by the Daiwa Securities SMBC-Cathay Co (國泰大和證券).
The firm's estimate includes spending on group tours and shopping, with the company predicting that the nation's travel agencies and hotels would benefit the most from an easing of restrictions.
It estimated that spending by each group of Chinese tourists could benefit the local economy, with each person spending between US$1,000 and US$1,200 each day of a 10-day tour.
If there were 540,000 Chinese tourist arrivals per year, spending on group tours would amount to US$540 million to US$650 million, or NT$17.3 billion to NT$20.8 billion, it said.
If each tourist spent NT$20,000 on shopping in Taiwan, the total amount would reach NT$10 billion per year, it added.
■ Chinatrust appoints president
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the nation's fourth-biggest financial services company by market value, said it named its chief risk officer Hsu Chien-chi (許建基) as president.
Hsu will take up the post from Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), who has been the acting president since October when then-president Eric Chen (陳聖德) resigned, according to a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange sent late on Monday.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against the greenback on foreign fund outflows and after comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke left the door open for another interest rate rise later this month, dealers said.
The NT dollar fell NT$0.013 to close at NT$32.062 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$798 million.
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