Stocks fell yesterday as the results of the mayoral elections in Taipei and Kaohsiung raised uncertainty over the opposition's prospects in the 2008 presidential election, analysts said.
The TAIEX shed 24.18 points, or 0.32 percent, to 7,612.12 on turnover of NT$102.98 (US$3.17 billion) yesterday. Foreign investors sold shares with a net worth of NT$6 billion.
Since the beginning of this month, international investors poured a net worth of NT$34.06 billion into the local bourse, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
"There was no change in the mayoral seats between the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and there should be no changes in the government's policy direction," said Alex Huang (黃國偉), an assistant vice president at Mega International Investment Services Co (兆豐國際投顧).
The KMT retained the Taipei mayorship on Saturday, while the DPP, to the surprise of many, held on to Kaohsiung.
The results cast doubt on the KMT's chances of winning the presidential election in 2008 and disappointed some investors who had hoped for a major easing in Taiwan's economic policies toward China.
While any dramatic change in policy toward Beijing was unlikely in the near term, the government would maintain its measured pace in relaxing some rules, Huang said.
Analysts appeared optimistic about the future of the local stock market.
"Everything looks okay now. We are still upbeat about the market," George Hou (
Hou said he expected to see a continuous injection of funds from foreign buyers into Taiwan as they attempt to cash in on cheap valuations, mergers and acquisitions and cash dividends.
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