Construction and tourism shares climbed in Taipei trading as prospects for warmer relations between Taiwan and China helped mitigate concerns over global growth.
A weekend meeting between leaders of Taiwan and China spurred an index of construction stocks on the benchmark TAIEX index to climb 4.1 percent to its highest in almost 10 years, while the TAIEX tourism index jumped 5.4 percent to a record. The TAIEX lost 16.90, or 0.2 percent, to 8,892.68 points at the close in Taipei, Asia’s third-best performer yesterday.
Vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) met Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) at the Boao Forum for Asia at the weekend, the highest-level talks between the two sides in more than five decades. Both parties discussed allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan while welcoming investment from China in Taiwanese infrastructure projects.
“It is the Boao effect,” said Robyn Hsu, who helps manage US$4.9 billion funds at Capital Investment Trust Corp (群益投信) in Taipei. “Taiwan and China have both agreed in principle that direct flights and tourists are the two first two steps they will take toward moving closer together.”
Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設), the nation’s second-largest developer, added NT$1.40, or 4.9 percent, to NT$30, its highest since March 1998. Shining Building Business Co (鄉林集團), the nation’s third-largest developer, climbed NT$2.50, or 2.3 percent, to a record NT$111.50.
Taiwan needs about NT$1.3 trillion (US$43 billion) of private-sector investment in infrastructure projects over the next eight years and the government “welcomes investment from the mainland,” Siew said at the Boao forum on Sunday.
The nation’s largest publicly listed hotel operator, Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華集團), climbed NT$36, or 6.7 percent, to NT$577. The Ambassador Hotel (國賓飯店), the second-largest hotel operator, climbed NT$2.10, or 3.8 percent, to NT$57.40. Both stocks closed at record highs.
China wants direct transport links as soon as possible, which would mitigate the possible impact of the US subprime mortgage crisis, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming (陳德銘) said at the forum.
The TAIEX’s performance yesterday was bettered only by benchmarks in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Taiwanese companies reliant on overseas sales fell on concern demand for their products will drop.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest custom-chip maker and the nation’s largest listed company, slipped NT$1.10, or 1.7 percent, to NT$63 while Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), lost NT$3, or 1.6 percent, to NT$185.
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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