TAIEX follows Wall Street lower
The TAIEX closed down 0.70 percent yesterday following Wall Street’s overnight fall and in line with weaker regional markets, dealers said.
The index fell 47.08 points to 6,668.14 on turnover of NT$115.69 billion (US$3.51 billion).
Losers led gainers 1,390 to 802, with 148 stocks unchanged.
Buying in the electronics sector, which made up 61 percent of yesterday’s trade, kept the index off its intra-day low of 6,629.83, Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券) trader Andrew Teng (鄧安瀾) said.
“Funds are flowing to technology stocks, but the percentage needs to reach 70 percent to drive up the main index,” he said.
Buy in S Korea, Taiwan: analysts
Investors should buy South Korean and Taiwanese shares in the second half of the year to benefit from a recovery in developed economies, JPMorgan Chase & Co said.
Technology shares and companies that benefit from consumer spending are preferred, analysts led by Adrian Mowat wrote in a report yesterday.
“The probability of positive economic surprises is high,” they said. “The leverage that can be generated from this lift in developed market growth is now being felt in Asia.”
JPMorgan’s portfolio for Taiwanese stocks included Lite-on Technology Corp (光寶科技), the world’s largest maker of mobile-phone casings, and Wistron Corp (緯創) the world’s third-largest maker of laptop computers.
Quanta sees positive growth
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) posted a second quarter revenue of NT$170.4 billion (US$5.17 billion), down 14.81 percent from a year ago, but an improvement of 9.23 percent quarter-on-quarter, the company said yesterday.
Last month was the first time this year that the Taoyuan-based firm posted positive year-on-year and month-on-month sales growth of 4.9 percent and 29.7 percent respectively, with sales of NT$65.1 billion.
In addition, the company also reported that last month’s notebook shipments came to 3.3 million units, an increase of 1 million units, or 43.5 percent, compared with May triggered by increased demand.
Meanwhile, Wistron Corp (緯創) showed more volatility in the second quarter compared with its competitor.
For the three months ending last month, Wistron posted sales of NT$126.41 billion, a sharp decline of 28.10 percent from same time last year, but an increase of 18.33 percent from the first quarter.
Lat month, Wistron booked a revenue of NT$48.17 billion, an increase of 40.44 percent and 59.66 percent year-on-year and month-on-month respectively.
Chinatrust profits dip
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) reported a 54 percent decline in second-quarter profit.
Net income dropped to NT$1.83 billion (US$55 million) from NT$3.98 billion a year earlier, according to estimates derived by subtracting first-quarter earnings from first-half results.
The company reported first-half unaudited profit declined to NT$5.23 billion from NT$8.9 billion a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) posted a 50 percent decline in preliminary first-half net income.
Net profit declined to NT$2.9 billion, or NT$0.48 per share, the company said in an exchange filing yesterday. The company posted a profit of NT$5.8 billion, or NT$0.97 a share, a year ago.
Greenback edges higher
The New Taiwan dollar continued to lose ground against the US dollar yesterday, falling NT$0.047 to close at NT$33.036. A total of US$1.14 billion changed hands.
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],”
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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