The nation's buoyant housing market is likely to be unaffected by the aftermath of the indictment of first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) industry veterans said yesterday.
"We remain optimistic about the property sector," Victor Chang (張欣民), director of the research and development division at Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋), the nation's largest housing agent, said in a phone interview yesterday.
The political uncertainty did not seem to have had an immediate impact on the housing market, considering the busy homebuyer traffic in visiting pre-sale housing projects and secondary houses over the past weekend, Chang said.
There is a possibility the market could suffer if anti-President-Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) protesters regroup for further large-scale demonstrations, he said.
Construction sub-index outperformed the benchmark index with a rise of 0.95 percent compared with the TAIEX, which dropped 0.57 percent yesterday.
A number of construction stocks almost hit the 7-percent limit-up, including Radium Life Tech Co (
"Political disturbance is only a short-term bearish factor that will not impede house shopping and investment momentum," Chang said.
Meanwhile, the nation's housing market seems to have rid itself of the sluggishness seen in the third quarter, a result of the ghost month effect and political uncertainty, with the volume of transactions in the greater Taipei area growing 7 percent last month from September, according to data compiled by Evertrust Rehouse (永慶房屋).
Average prices climbed 2 percent to NT$280,000 per ping in the Taipei area over the same time, the data showed.
Good business can be expected in the high fourth quarter, said Yeh Ling-chi (
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
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