Shares closed 1.51 percent higher yesterday following a modest rebound on Wall Street overnight and a pullback in crude oil prices, dealers said.
AU Optronics Corp (
The benchmark TAIEX closed up 141.76 points at 9,502.39.
Turnover was NT$148.45 billion (US$4.55 billion).
Risers led decliners 1,477 to 540, with 203 stocks unchanged.
Three major institutional investors bought a net NT$1.37 billion worth of Taiwan stocks, with foreign fund managers purchasing a net of NT$1.6 billion, the Taiwan Stock Exchange's data showed.
"Wall Street is set to remain the key to how Taipei and other regional markets perform," said a local trader who declined to be named.
Local technology shares took their lead from the NASDAQ, with the prospect of the latter extending its gains tonight in New York on the back of Apple's stronger-than-expected earnings, he said.
In the short term, corporate earnings will dictate the direction of Wall Street and that of Asian bourses, including Taipei, he said.
AU Optronics closed down 3.4 percent at NT$67.20, despite announcing a consolidated net profit of NT$22.57 billion for the third quarter, up from NT$5.92 billion in the previous quarter.
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (
Elsewhere in Asia, most regional markets bounced back yesterday as investors overcame some of their nervousness about the credit markets.
Hong Kong shares jumped 3.5 percent, South Korean shares bounced back 2.32 percent and other regional markets also rose, except in New Zealand. Thailand's markets were closed for a holiday.
Japanese stocks rebounded slightly after two days of decline as Wall Street's gains led investors back to recently battered financial shares such as Mizuho Financial Group.
The Nikkei 225 average rose 0.07 percent to 16,450.58 points. The index had lost 3.9 percent over the previous two trading days.
"The mood of decline [which started Monday] is unlikely to continue," said Seiichiro Iwasawa, chief strategist at Nomura Securities.
But he warned that investors should watch the state of the US economy, which "is heading south for sure."
European shares extended their gains by midday yesterday, lifted by the strong performance of British Petroleum and European engineers such as Siemens.
By 10am, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 1.1 percent at 1,560.39 points.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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