Shares climb 0.72%
Taiwanese shares closed up 0.72 percent yesterday after Wall Street hit fresh highs for the year overnight, dealers said.
The TAIEX index rose 50.60 points to 7,077.71 on turnover of NT$158.27 billion (US$4.83 billion).
Gainers led losers by 1,232 to 1,058, with 189 stocks unchanged.
The market opened up 1.2 percent, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as interest was boosted by optimism after US companies reported higher than expected earnings, dealers said.
However, profit-taking pressure emerged to erode early gains with the index moving past the resistance level of 7,100, they said.
UBS optimistic over China
Taiwan’s stocks are expected to extend gains in the next three to six months as relations with China improve, according to UBS AG.
In a report yesterday, the brokerage recommended investors buy shares of companies such as Far Eastern Textile Ltd (遠東紡織), Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥), Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) and Wistron Corp (緯創).
“The promise of greater economic ties with China suggests a bright future for Taiwan,” said William Dong (董成康), an analyst at UBS. “We believe Taiwan is moving in the right direction.”
HK firm, Primus eyes company
China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團) said it teamed up with Primus Financial Holdings Ltd to bid for a controlling stake in an insurance company in “Greater China.”
The Hong Kong-traded company said it planned to raise capital to acquire the insurance company, which it didn’t identify.
Primus Financial is among bidders selected to submit a binding offer for American International Group Inc’s (AIG) Taiwan unit, three people with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday last week.
Bain Capital LLC, Morgan Stanley’s private equity unit, and Oaktree Capital Management LLC plan to bid together with Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) for AIG’s Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) unit, Taiwan’s second-biggest life insurer by premiums, the sources said.
Surface rates rise on Sept. 1
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) and Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), as well as China Cosco Holdings Co (中國遠洋控股), Nippon Yusen KK and four other container lines, agreed to raise transport rates for US-Asia shipments from Sept. 1 to reverse a decline in fees.
The shipping lines will boost dry-cargo rates by US$150 per 40-foot container from the US west coast, according to an e-mailed statement from the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement that was dated Thursday.
NT dollar rises after US report
The New Taiwan dollar strengthened yesterday after a report that jobless claims in the US last week held below June levels offered more signs of recovery in the world’s biggest economy.
The NT dollar rose 0.1 percent to NT$32.818 versus the US currency at the 4pm close, compared with NT$32.955 at the end of last week and NT$32.818 at the end of last month, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It touched NT$32.68 on July 29, the strongest level since July 2.
“Asia as a region seems to be generally regarded as growing faster than the rest of the world, so Asian currencies will still see an appreciation bias,” said Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG.
He forecast that the NT dollar would strengthen to NT$32.4 by the end of the year.
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