■ Firm troubles hit stocks
Share prices closed 1.26 percent lower yesterday amid concern over the impact of government moves to take over several financially troubled financial institutions, dealers said.
They said financial stocks were hardest hit by selling pressure after the government appointed agencies to take over ailing firms The Chinese Bank (中華銀行), the Great Chinese Bills Finance Corp (力華票券) and the Enterprise Bank of Hualien (花蓮企銀).
With the broad market being clouded by the weakness in financial stocks, large-cap local electronics lost ground after declines in their US peers on Friday, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 98.86 points at 7,736.71 after trading between 7,797.57 and 7,736.11, on turnover of NT$109.83 billion (US$3.36 billion).
■ Finance jobs may take a hit
More jobs in the financial sector may be affected in the coming months because the storm of a lingering credit card crunch is not over, coupled with last week's run on The Chinese Bank (中華銀行), a government official said yesterday.
Citing statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the DGBAS official reported that around 2,000 workers in the financial sector had lost their jobs since October 2005 and that more might face the same fate after the run on the Chinese Bank.
He forecast that the number of unemployed in the financial sector would top 3,000 in the coming months, despite the fact that it is still difficult to assess the impact of bank run on the job market.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development has estimated an overall jobless rate of less than 4 percent this year, he added.
■ Alvarion, Accton in venture
Alvarion Ltd, an Israeli maker of wireless broadband technology, formed a joint venture with Taiwan's Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技) to develop electronic devices using WiMax technology.
The new Taiwan-based undertaking, Accton Wireless Broadband, will make use of Alvarion technology, the two companies said in a Business Wire statement yesterday.
The venture will design consumer-electronic devices using the WiMax standard, it said.
Combining Alvarion's technology with Accton's research and development capabilities in wireless products "will accelerate the introduction of next generation wireless broadband consumer products with advanced features," Accton CEO A.J. Huang said in the statement.
The joint venture's first product will be indoor and outdoor residential gateways for installation by the user, the companies said. They expect the first product to be available in the second quarter.
■ India proving attractive
Viewing India as a strong economic partner, Taiwan's information technology firms are shifting investment destinations from China to the subcontinent, a mass-circulation Indian newspaper reported yesterday.
According to the Financial Express, the combination of Taiwanese manufacturing and Indian software design will help create a win-win situation.
Hsu Chun-fang (徐純芳), deputy director-general of the Board of Foreign Trade, was quoted as saying that Taiwan is targeting India while striving to expand economic and trade relations with other countries.
■ NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, decreasing NT$0.067 to close at NT$32.676 on turnover of US$1.04 billion.
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
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