■ Sharemarket unchanged
Share prices closed little changed yesterday, with investors waiting to see what the fallout will be from North Korea's missile tests, dealers said.
They said investors were additionally cautious after Wall Street's losses overnight and a spike in oil prices to record highs.
The TAIEX slipped 0.89 points to 6,659.07, off a low of 6,608.49, on turnover of NT$68.54 billion (US$2.12 billion).
Acer Inc was limit-up 7 percent at NT$58.30 on expectations that the PC vendor should benefit from a seasonally stronger second half, when demand is likely to get an extra boost from Intel Corp's decision to cut chip prices.
Risers led decliners 496 to 403, with 145 stocks unchanged.
■ Taiwan Salt fined
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced yesterday that Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp (台鹽) will be fined NT$780,000 (US$24,000) for spreading rumors against products of other companies.
The company will be punished for making false claims against products of other companies at a news conference on May 14, 2004, the commission said.
According to the FTC officials, a lengthy FTC investigation found that Taiwan Salt personnel made unfounded claims at the news conference two years ago, alleging that products made by the other companies might contain illegal ingredients and that some of them were even produced with salt for industrial use from India, Thailand and China.
But the claims were found to be untrue by the FTC, they said.
■ Futures exchange has new head
The Cabinet announced late last night that former vice premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) would replace Sam Wang (王得山) as chairman of Taiwan Futures Exchange, while Wang would retire from politics.
Wu became vice premier on Feb. 18 last year at the invitation of then-premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). He resigned from that position in late January this year after a Cabinet reshuffle.
Wu was in the public spotlight recently after his abrupt resignation from the position of independent board director of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), a move that helped the government take control over the financial service provider during a boardroom fight.
Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) strongly denied speculation that Wu's new appointment was a reward in exchange for his earlier resignation from Mega Financial, CNA reported.
The Cabinet also announced that Wang Chung-kai (王中愷), head of the futures exchange's clearance committee, would replace Ho Fu-hsiung (何富雄) as the exchange's new president.
■ Outflow continues
Taiwan continued to register a net outflow of foreign remittances last month, with foreign investors remitting a net US$1.77 billion in equity funds out of the country during the month, according to figures re-leased yesterday by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Taiwan saw the end of a six-month record of net inflows of remittances in May when foreign investors remitted a net amount of just US$77 million out of the country.
Since the government began allowing foreign investment in Taiwan's stock market in December 1990, foreign institutional investors, foreign individuals and overseas Chinese have remitted net US$119.72 billion into Taiwan as of June 30.
■ NT dollar down again
The New Taiwan dollar slid for a second day against its US counterpart, down NT$0.069 to close at NT$32.459 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover for the day reached US$690 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