■ TAIEX gains 0.98 percent
Shares closed 0.98 percent higher yesterday in expanded trade as investors took a lead from gains on Wall Street overnight, following the release of robust US consumer data, dealers said.
The upside, however, was capped by caution ahead of a string of holidays for the Lunar New Year later this month, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 75.49 points at 7,777.03, on turnover of NT$87.02 billion (US$2.64 billion).
Risers led decliners 820 to 372, with 202 stocks unchanged.
For the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed down 44.29 points or 0.57 percent after a 0.24 percent fall a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$83.83 billion, after NT$113.98 billion.
The market will be closed from Feb. 15 to Feb. 23 for the Lunar New Year.
■ Shin Kong Bank in Vietnam
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday approved an application by Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行) to set up a liaison office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which would be the bank's first in a foreign country, commission officials said.
Considering that 75 percent of Taiwanese businessmen investing in Vietnam are in Ho Chi Minh City and nearby cities, the bank decided to set up a liaison office there to collect business information and provide them with advisory services, they said.
To date, other Taiwanese banks have established seven branch offices, 10 liaison offices and one subsidiary bank in Vietnam, they added.
■ Quanta shipments soar
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest contract maker of notebook computers by shipments, shipped a record 2 million notebook computers last month, the company's president said yesterday.
It was the first time in Quanta's 19-year history that its notebook shipments exceeded 2 million units for one month, Michael Wang (王震華) said.
The company's unconsolidated revenue last month rose more than 50 percent from a year earlier to NT$50.27 billion (US$1.51 billion) amid strong demand from clients ahead of Microsoft Corp's launch of the Vista operating system, he said.
"We expect the strong growth momentum to continue in the rest of the year," he said.
Quanta's unconsolidated revenue could exceed NT$500 billion this year, compared with NT$461.5 billion last year, Wang said.
■ China Steel sales surge
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan's largest steelmaker, said last month's sales surged 38 percent to NT$16.5 billion (US$502 million).
Pretax profit was NT$5.19 billion last month, the Kaohsiung-based company said in an e-mail statement. The company in January last year reported sales of NT$11.9 billion.
■ NT ends five-week loss
The New Taiwan dollar posted a weekly gain, ending five weeks of losses, as strength in Japan's yen and South Korea's won eased concern that the nation's central bank would sell its currency to maintain export competitiveness.
"The Taiwan dollar has really been driven by the stronger yen and that's the swing factor right now for it," said Tim Condon, an economist at ING Bank NV in Singapore. "We're optimistic on Taiwan and the currency can go a bit stronger."
The NT dollar rose 0.1 percent this week to close at NT$32.916 against the US currency, Taipei Forex Inc said.
The currency may climb to NT$32 in the next few months, Condon said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”