TAIEX rises 2.96 percent
Taiwanese shares closed up 2.96 percent yesterday after the launch of cross-strait direct shipping and daily flights, as well as a White House pledge to rescue the US auto industry, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 132.45 points at 4,613.72, off a low of 4,588.14 and a high of 4,676.46 on turnover of NT$71.11 billion (US$2.14 billion).
The market opened higher in reflection of closer transportation links between Taiwan and China, while market sentiment was lifted throughout trade as the US government vowed to bail out the Big Three automakers, dealers said.
“Investors have high hopes that the better cross-strait business ties have paved the path for the improvement of the domestic economy,” Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券) analyst Allen Lin said.
Taiwan’s transportation ministry estimates local airlines and passengers will save about NT$3 billion s a year and shipping companies will save about half that after the new links.
Transport and tourism stocks hailed the direct transportation ties on improving market confidence, dealers said.
“More important, the White House’s move has cheered investors here, helping the market recoup most of Friday’s losses,” Lin said.
Yuanta execs forego bonuses
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), owner of Taiwan’s largest securities brokerage, said some senior executives will give up pay for this year.
President Victor Ma (馬維建) and chief operating officer Michael Ma (馬維辰) “decided to voluntarily give up their pay and bonuses for 2008 after careful introspection,” the Taipei-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Judy Tu (杜麗萍), chairwoman of Yuanta Securities Co (元大證), its brokerage unit, would also forgo her salary and bonuses for this year, the company said.
The total amount of pay and bonuses that will be relinquished amounts to NT$24 million in addition to Lunar New Year bonuses due to be paid early next year, it said.
ADB to issue NT dollar bonds
Taiwan’s central bank said it would allow the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to issue bonds in the local currency, following similar moves by policymakers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
The ADB can sell New Taiwan dollar-denominated debt maturing in a year or more under its Asian Currency Note Program, the central bank said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.
The ADB plans to raise as much as US$10 billion via local-currency bond sales in the region during the 30 years through 2036. Its outstanding bond issuance in Taiwan under the program can total as much as NT$35 billion, the monetary authority said in Taipei.
Folding chair wins Red Dot
A folding chair without screws designed by a teacher at Shu-Te University in Kaohsiung County and his student won a Design Concept Award at Germany’s 2008 Red Dot Design Awards, considered the Oscars of the design world.
Lecturer Chen Chun-tung (陳俊東) and his student, Fang Po-hsiung (方柏翔), spent three months perfecting their design of the “Goodbye Screw” folding chair, one of the winners in the furniture category, which received about 1,900 entries.
Chen, who has designed 10 types of chairs for an industrial company, said yesterday it takes only one minute to assemble the folding chair, as it only has a few components and no screws.
He said the company that worked with him on the project obtained the right to manufacture the new product and could launch mass production.
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