Taiwan's stocks gain ground
Taiwan's stocks gained 56.60, or 0.7 percent, to close at 8,727.21 yesterday, rebounding from a two-month low, as Yang Ming Marine Transport (陽明海運) paced advances among shipping companies on expectations of falling fuel costs after a drop in the price of crude oil.
"Cheaper fuel prices certainly is a plus for shipping companies," said Vickie Hsieh (謝雯霞), who oversees US$1.4 billion at President Investment Trust Corp (統一投信). "Investors will now be more comfortable in investing in them."
Yang Ming Marine, the nation's second-largest container-shipping line, rose NT$0.80, or 3.2 percent, to NT$25.80. Evergreen Marine, Taiwan's largest, rose NT$0.10, or 0.4 percent, to NT$26.85.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) gained NT$2.30, or 2.5 percent, to NT$95.60. The company resumed production at its No. 2 ethylene plant in Mailiao Township (麥寮), which was shut on Sept. 26 for maintenance.
Elsewhere, China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan's largest maker of the alloy, gained NT$1.45, or 3.4 percent, to NT$43.55. China Steel will announce price increases on Thursday next week for products to be shipped in the first quarter, the Wealth News reported, without citing anyone.
Investment in China up 14%
Foreign investment in China rose 14 percent last month from a year ago to US$67.8 billion, the government said yesterday.
That brought total foreign investment for the first 10 months of this year to US$539.9 billion, an 11.5 percent increase over the same period last year, the Chinese ministry of commerce reported.
The figure has climbed steadily despite government curbs on industries such as auto manufacturing and textiles where the number of factories and other assets are believed to exceed demand.
Investment by US entities in new enterprises in China fell 5.9 percent last month, the ministry said.
Securities industry `stable'
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) gave a stable outlook for the nation's securities industry, citing the sector's adequate liquidity and capitalization, a statement released on Monday showed.
But intense competition and volatile earnings performances are expected to constitute continuing challenges to local securities firms, the ratings agency said.
"Continuing deregulation, enhanced risk management practices, and resources from financial holding company groups will continue to support the stable credit profiles of key domestic securities firms," said Chun Huang (黃俊榮), associate director of Taiwan Ratings' financial services ratings.
"Concentrated revenue sources and growing industry competition pose a risk to the livelihoods of most securities firms but also threaten to marginalize weaker securities firms," he added.
Won falls to monthly low
The South Korean won fell to the lowest in a month on speculation the central bank sold the currency to protect local exporters. Bonds declined.
The won slipped for a second day along with the yen and the yuan. Finance Minister Kwon Okyu (權五奎) this month said the government would buy or sell its currency to curb speculative moves in the foreign-exchange market.
The won fell as much as 1 percent to 920.30 to the US dollar, the weakest since Oct. 11, before closing at 918.70 at 3pm yesterday in Seoul from 911.30, according to Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd. Yesterday's decline was the biggest since Aug. 16.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday weakened by NT$0.009 to close at NT$32.299 against the greenback on turnover of US$892 million.
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
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