Shares close lower
Taiwanese shares closed down 1.77 percent yesterday as selling in late trade reversed early gains after a Wall Street rebound, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 129.57 points at 7,196.50 off a low of 7,181.69 and a high of 7,376.69 on turnover of NT$99.93 billion (US$3.2 billion).
The market faced technical pressure as it moved closer to the 7,400 point level, dealers said.
Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券) analyst Eric Lee said recent gains were merely a technical rebound in a bear market haunted by worries over economic fundamentals at home and abroad and possible volatility on Wall Street.
“It was no surprise that investors tended to pocket their gains whenever the market staged a rebound,” Lee said. “The bourse needs some time to consolidate before returning to an upswing trend.”
Selling also focused on the construction sector as a price correction hit the local property market, dealers said.
ChipMOS sues Tessera
Tessera Technologies Inc was sued by ChipMOS Technologies Ltd (南茂科技) in a challenge to one of its patents for semiconductor packaging.
Hsinchu-based ChipMOS asked a judge to invalidate the patent and award damages in a complaint filed on Monday in US District Court in Oakland, California.
Tessera, which is suing Motorola Inc, Qualcomm Inc and other wireless-device makers for infringement, accused ChipMOS of violating the patent and threatened litigation, the complaint said.
The disputed patent covers technology related to the size of packaging that protects chips from damage and contamination, allowing the chips to be smaller and faster when used in electronics. Tessera informed ChipMOS that it planned to have the patent included in a case before the US International Trade Commission, ChipMOS claims.
The lawsuit “should have no effect on our ability to pursue them in the ITC, which is where we are focusing our efforts and expect to see results,” said Julie Seymour, a spokeswoman for San Jose, California-based Tessera.
Tessera expects the lawsuit to be put on hold until the ITC rules in a case over packaging for chips used in cellular telephones, computers and digital cameras, Seymour said.
ChipMOS, which tests and packages microchips, is among a group of subcontractors for the chip industry that were accused of violating Tessera patents in the case, which is scheduled for a hearing before the ITC in February.
Tessera fell by US$0.27 to US$22.65 on Thursday in NASDAQ Stock Market composite trading. ChipMOS rose US$0.07 to US$2.52.
NT dollar drops again
The New Taiwan dollar headed for a fourth weekly loss yesterday on concern that a slowing world economy would reduce demand for Taiwanese exports.
It dropped on all but one day this month as reports showed the European and Japanese economies contracted in the second quarter, and that Taiwan had its first trade deficit last month since 2006.
The decline was caused by overseas investors repatriating funds, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing an unidentified central bank official.
“We think Taiwan will underperform relative to the rest of the region as the global slowdown unfolds,” said Daniel Hui, a currency strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. “The US dollar is rebounding because the outlook for the rest of the world is basically being downgraded.”
The local currency yesterday dropped as much as 0.5 percent to NT$31.405, the weakest since Feb. 25, to close at NT$31.33 on turnover of US$1.637 billion.
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