TAIEX closes higher
Share prices closed 0.91 percent higher yesterday with investors waiting for vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who is attending an economic forum in China, to outline a new blueprint for Taiwan’s economic development, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 80.18 points at 8,909.58, after moving in the range of 8,840.04 and 8,937.12, on turnover of NT$203.18 billion (US$6.71 billion).
Risers led decliners 1,236 to 982, with 330 stocks unchanged. A total of 29 stocks closed limit-up, while 14 were limit-down.
In the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed up 313.24 points or 3.64 percent at 8,909.58 after a 0.31 percent decline a week earlier. Average daily turnover stood at NT$147.43 billion, compared with NT$136.61 billion a week ago.
FAT shareholders want NT$3.16
Shareholders at Far Eastern Air Transport Co (FAT, 遠東航空 ) yesterday approved a private placement proposal to help improve its financial strength.
At an extraordinary shareholder meeting held yesterday, Far Eastern Air shareholders demanded that its management sell a big tranche of securities to the interested investors at a price of no less than NT$3.16 per share.
Shareholders criticized the management for planning to sell the company too cheap, as the board of directors had earlier proposed selling new shares to potential investors at a price of no less than NT$1 per share.
But management expressed concern that the NT$3.16 offer might not work to attract new investors, as the company reported a net value of only NT$1.597 as of the end of February.
Realtek shares plummet
Realtek Semiconductor Corp’s (瑞昱半導體) share price yesterday fell the most in almost two months after the chip designer lost a patent lawsuit to 3Com Corp, prompting Goldman, Sachs & Co to cut its investment rating on the stock.
Realtek slid by the daily limit of 7 percent, the most since Feb. 12, to close at NT$89.20 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The Hsinchu-based company was ordered to pay 3Com US$45.3 million after a federal jury in San Francisco found on April 9 that Realtek willfully infringed three 3Com patents.
Goldman downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy” and lowered their 12-month share-price estimate to NT$90 from NT$118.
THSRC expects new milestone
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) said yesterday that with passenger volume continuing to rise, it is now expecting the 23 millionth passenger, a number equal to the nation’s total population.
THSRC officials said that, as of Thursday, the company had sold 22,873,331 high speed rail tickets, and they think that it will see the 23 millionth passenger in the next few days.
To celebrate yet another milestone in the system, the officials said they were preparing to present the 23 millionth passenger with 23 business-class tickets as well as high speed rail memorabilia.
The passenger volume and revenues reached 2.31 million and NT$1.903 billion last month, both setting records in a single month.
The passenger volume broke the threshold of 1 million on Jan. 22 last year; 10 million on Sept. 18 last year, and 20 million on March 7.
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the greenback after the central bank and oil firms bought US dollars, dealers said.
The NT dollar dropped NT$0.011 to close at NT$30.319 on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday. A total of US$1.342 billion 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],”
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