TAIEX edges up
Share prices closed 0.62 percent higher yesterday as profit-taking wiped out early gains sparked by Wall Street’s overnight rally, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 41.7 points to 6,780.3 on turnover of NT$150 billion (US$460 million).
The market opened high on Wall Street’s overnight gains, but profit taking emerged as the market met resistance at the 6,900-point level.
“Some investors who had purchased shares on bargain-hunting earlier this week took advantage of the rise spurred by the Wall Street rally and locked in their profits,” said Allen Lin of Concord Securities (康和證券).
Land sale attracts 90 bidders
The National Property Bureau auctioned off six land plots in Taipei City’s prime districts yesterday, attracting a total of 90 bidders.
One plot, measuring 115.86 ping (382m²) and located on Heping E Rd, was sold for NT$383 million, the bureau said.
Another piece measuring 64.74 ping and located near National Taiwan Normal University was sold for NT$134 million, the bureau said. Another plot measured 100.73 ping near National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall was sold for NT$211 million.
Jeffry Huang (黃增福), an associate manager with Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), said the deals affirmed the popularity of properties in prime locations in light of the high prices.
Ruten.com files complaint
Local e-commerce Web site Ruten.com (露天拍賣) filed a complaint yesterday with the Fair Trade Commission, accusing Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩) of false advertising by claiming to be the nation’s largest second-hand automobile marketplace.
Yahoo-Kimo, the country’s biggest online auctioneer by sales volume, has conducted a marketing campaign promoting its used vehicle sales since the beginning of this month, boasting to be the leader in the category.
Using July 9 as a reference date, Ruten said that in terms of used car listings, it had 102,726 items while Yahoo listed 6,084 items.
In terms of used automobiles and motorcycles actually sold between June 25 and Tuesday, Ruten posted 207 transactions compared to Yahoo’s 57.
Inotera to sell GDSes
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) may raise US$300 million in a share sale to fund machinery and equipment purchases, a sale document said.
The Taoyuan-based company plans to sell 64 million Luxembourg Stock Exchange-listed global depositary shares (GDS), equal to 640 million common shares, or a 16 percent stake, at an unspecified price, the e-mail sent to fund managers said.
It may increase the sale by 16 million GDSes, the notice said.
Inotera will use the proceeds to buy machinery and equipment for the conversion of process technology at wafer plants, the e-mail said.
It didn’t reveal a timetable for the sale, which is being arranged by Credit Suisse Group AG.
Largan Precision’s sales rise
Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s largest maker of lenses for digital cameras, expects sales to rise this month from last month on “strong” demand for lenses, chief financial officer Chiu Tung-chuan (邱東泉) said by telephone yesterday.
The Taichung-based company posted a 47 percent increase in sales in the second quarter from the previous three months.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.016 to close at NT$32.959. Turnover was US$819 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