Shares closed considerably higher yesterday, up 2.41 percent on regional strength, follow-through buying and support for stocks with exposure to China, dealers said.
They said investors found no comfort in Wall Street's lackluster performance overnight, with the Dow slipping 0.38 percent.
But they would focus on a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the US central bank's annual conference later yesterday, from which the market expects to get a clue on the next Fed move on interest rates.
The TAIEX closed up 210.95 points at the day's high of 8,982.16 on turnover of NT$166.14 billion (US$5.03 billion).
Risers led decliners 1,221 to 500, with 216 stocks unchanged.
Jack Tam, assistant vice president with Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Investment Consulting (
"Some local firms' exposure to the mainland market really paid off. Their earnings results encouraged investors to chase share prices much higher," Tam said.
Asian stocks rose to their best level in three weeks after strong profits from sector heavyweight Dell Inc boosted technology shares and on news US President George W. Bush will propose reforms to help homeowners with subprime mortgages.
MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan climbed 2.2 percent by midday to levels last seen on Aug. 9, while Japan's Nikkei average gained 2.6 percent to end at a two-week closing high.
Stocks in major centers in the region from Hong Kong to Australia, Singapore and India were all up more than 1 percent.
For the week to August 31, the weighted index closed up 292.07 points or 3.36 percent after a 7.41 percent increase a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$136.08 billion, compared with NT$132.65 billion a week ago.
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