TAIEX gains 0.72 percent
Taiwanese shares closed up 0.72 percent yesterday despite health authorities reporting the nation’s first confirmed case of influenza A(H1N1), dealers said.
The weighted index rose 48.03 points to close at 6,703.62 on turnover of NT$191.56 billion (US$5.8 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,170 to 1,006, while 132 stocks remained unchanged. A total of 87 shares surged to their daily 7 percent limit-up, compared with 16 limit-down.
The financial sector rose 2.2 percent, electronics were up 0.65 percent, while construction fell 1.11 percent.
Scrap sales tax: companies
Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) yesterday promised to consider a request by two business leaders to cut the sales tax to help them weather the economic downturn.
Tatung Co (大同) chairman Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) and Taiwan Glass Industry Corp (台玻) president Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) told a luncheon meeting that the ministry should lower the sales levy or scrap it altogether to spur economic growth.
Lin Wei-shan said the ministry cut the vehicle sales tax late last year to help boost car sales and should extend the policy to home appliances.
The minister said the tax reform committee was likely to reach a conclusion in August on a proposal to replace the sales tax with an energy levy to promote a more equitable taxation system and boost living standards.
China to send buying teams
China will send three business delegations to Taiwan to buy food, machinery and other goods as the two sides join hands to tackle the financial crisis, Beijing said yesterday.
The first mission is scheduled to visit Taiwan later this month, with the other two to be dispatched in the middle of next month and in early July, June and early July, Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian (姚堅) said in a statement.
The first team will be mainly composed of representatives from home appliances, food processing and other light industries, a statement on the ministry’s Web site said.
Fitch downgrades Nan Shan
Following its rating downgrade on American International Group Inc last week, Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded Nan Shan Life Insurance Co’s (南山人壽) financial strength rating to “A+(twn)” from “AA(twn)” and revised its outlook on the local insurer to “negative” from “stable.”
Fitch said in a statement that its rating downgrade on Nan Shan reflected the weakened capability of the local insurer’s parent company, AIG, to provide financial support, “which would lead to an increased reliance of its credit strength on stand-alone financial and market positions.”
The outlook revision also reflects Fitch’s view that Nan Shan was facing more challenges in replenishing its capital in the near future, the statement said.
UMC sells MediaTek shares
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-biggest contract chipmaker, said yesterday it had sold 955,000 shares of MediaTek Inc (聯發科) at NT$402.04 per share and booked a gain of NT$374.64 million.
After the sale, UMC said it still holds 871,763 shares, or 0.08 percent, of MediaTek, it said in a stock filing.
NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar continued gaining ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.027 to close at NT$32.855 on turnover of US$843 million.
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