TAIEX drops on profit-taking
Taiwanese shares closed 0.60 percent lower yesterday as early gains gave way to profit-taking in line with weakness seen across Asian markets, dealers said.
The index closed down 49.60 points at 8,161.39, off a high of 8,315.23 and a low of 8,120.49, on turnover of NT$109.03 billion (US$3.55 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,368 to 647, with 328 stocks unchanged.
Nine stocks closed limit-up, while 23 were limit-down.
For the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed down 369.99 points or 4.34 percent at 8,161.39 after a 1.41 percent increase a week earlier. Average daily turnover stood at NT$128.04 billion, compared with NT$167.44 billion a week ago.
Shabu shabu franchise fined
The Fair Trade Commission announced yesterday that it had imposed a fine of NT$5 million (US$162,680) on the White Sugarcane Shabu Shabu restaurant chain for trademark infringement.
The commission said in a news release that its members reached the decision a day earlier at a meeting after establishing that the restaurant chain has used Taisugar -- a registered trademark of Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖) -- to promote its business.
The restaurant chain has advertised on its billboards and Web site that the soup base for its hot pot is made of "Taisugar's white sugar cane."
But the fine print at the bottom of the Web site says the hot pot chain is not related to Taiwan Sugar Corp.
The commission said that Taisugar has been a registered trademark of the state-owned, Tainan-based Taiwan Sugar Corp since 1953, and that the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs had already recognized Taisugar as a "famous trademark."
Euro zone inflation at new high
Higher prices for transport fuel, heating, dairy products and bread pushed inflation in the euro currency zone to a new high of 3.3 percent last month, the EU statistics office Eurostat reported yesterday.
Soaring inflation puts pressure on the European Central Bank and finance ministers of the 15 nations that use the euro to curb racing costs for basic goods.
Worried about tight credit conditions, the central bank has so far held off raising interest rates that would help cool inflation -- now well above its recommended guideline of just under 2 percent.
Eurostat yesterday revised upward a first estimate of 3.2 percent for the month, the same figure for January.
Chinese buy Singapore plant
Singapore's state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd said yesterday it has sold a power plant in the city-state to a Chinese power producer for S$4.235 billion (US$3 billion).
Temasek sold Tuas Power Ltd -- one of three power generation companies that Temasek has on the block -- to China Huaneng Group through a bidding process, and expects the transaction to be completed by March 24, it said in a statement.
Temasek is also selling PowerSeraya Ltd and Senoko Power Ltd. The three together generate about 90 percent of Singapore's power.
Temasek has said that it expects to complete the sale of the companies by the first half of next year.
NT falls against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.058 to close at NT$30.744.
A total of US$1.368 billion changed hands during yesterday's trading.
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],”