Shares fall 0.35%
Taiwan's share prices closed 0.35 percent lower yesterday amid investor caution on the eve of legislative elections, with profit-taking wiping out early gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 27.96 points at 8,029.31 off a high of 8,151.95 on turnover of NT$109.33 billion (US$3.36 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,018 to 831, with 493 stocks unchanged.
For the week, the weighted index closed down 191.79 points or 2.33 percent after a 2.09 percent fall the week before.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$131.54 billion, compared with NT$106.31 billion a week ago.
Central bank auctions bills
The nation's central bank auctioned NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) in five-year treasury bills yesterday at a yield of 2.49 percent, the central bank said in a statement.
The yield offered by bidders was significantly lower than the 2.74 percent of NT$28.3 billion in five-year debt issued last October.
Yesterday's auction drew bids equal to 2.28 times the debt on offer, compared with 1.62 times at the last auction, the statement said.
S&P stands by Mega rating
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services yesterday said its ratings and outlook for Mega International Bank (兆豐國際銀行) were not affected by the lender's latest disclosure of losses from its US subprime mortgage-related investments.
The international ratings agency expects the Taipei-based lender to "maintain satisfactory profitability relative to its domestic peers," it said in a statement.
Mega Bank incurred a loss of NT$807 million (US$24.86 million) for the fourth quarter of last year on a NT$1.1 billion investment in subprime mortgage products, the bank said on Wednesday.
For the whole of last year, Mega may see its subprime-related losses total NT$1 billion, compared with its net profit estimate of NT$15 billion, the bank said at the time.
Taiwan tops in ICT products
Taiwan ranked first in worldwide market share for 11 information and communications technology (ICT) products last year, according to statistics released on Thursday by the Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center (MIC).
Taiwan was tops in global market share for motherboards, notebook computers, LCD monitors, CDT monitors, digital signal controllers, cable CPEs, VoIP routers, DSL CPE devices, WLAN NIC cards, IP phones and IP set-top boxes, the statistics showed.
The tallies also show that the country ranked second in market share for five other ICT products, including WLAN access point devices, servers, cable set-top boxes, desktop PCs and optical disk drives.
MIC officials said the statistics clearly demonstrate that Taiwan's ICT manufacturers have received international recognition.
New Century names Nilsson
The board of fixed-line company New Century InfoComm Tech Co (新世紀資通) yesterday approved the nomination of Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) vice chairman Jan Nilsson as its own vice chairman.
As part of the management shakeup, Far EasTone vice president Jeffrey Gee (紀竹律) would succeed Lim Shyong (林雄) as New Century's new president. Lim's contract with New Century was due to end yesterday.
Far EasTone owns a 24.51 percent stake in New Century.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Forex Inc yesterday, rising NT$0.021 to close at NT$32.466. A total of US$664 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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