Shares close lower
Taiwanese shares closed down 0.30 percent yesterday, led by large cap electronic firms amid concerns over earnings, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 21.00 points to 7,056.71 on turnover of NT$128.77 billion (US$3.93 billion).
The market opened down 0.58 percent as investors expressed dissatisfaction with smartphone maker HTC’s (宏達電) cautious guidance on its outlook, dragging the index down to 6,986.29 at one point, dealers said.
However, interest rotated to old economy firms, in particular property and steel stocks, helping the broader market back above 7,000.
Investors were worried that stiff global competition would undermine the company’s profitability, Concord Securities (康和證券) analyst Allen Lin said.
“While HTC remains profitable, investors expected it would have earned more,” Lin said.
Firms packed with large property assets outperformed the broader market on hopes that domestic property prices would rise further, dealers said.
No Nan Shan sale favorite: FSC
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday denied media speculation that it was firming on Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) as the recipient of a planned sale of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) by its US parent, the financially troubled American International Group Inc (AIG).
“The commission fully respects the market mechanism,” an FSC press statement said yesterday.
The Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday reported that Cathay Financial was the most hopeful of the bidders and the first to conduct a diligence check on the life insurer last week.
The report added that the commission preferred Cathay Financial because of its greater experience in insurance than bidders Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金) and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金).
Citibank in business transfer
Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) and Citibank NA Taiwan yesterday completed a transfer of business to provide a full range of financial services to customers through 65 branches and 5,000 employees nationwide, a statement said.
Business transferred to subsidiary Citibank Taiwan included consumer banking, wealth management and corporate banking, while Citibank NA Taiwan will continue to provide large loan extensions to corporate clients as well as making foreign exchange/derivatives transactions with financial institutions, the statement added.
Macroblock falls by day limit
Macroblock Inc (聚積科技), a light-emitting diode driver maker, fell by its 7 percent daily limit after Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) cut its rating to “underweight” from “overweight” on “weaker than expected” second-quarter results.
The stock retreated NT$10.50 to NT$139.50, the most since Aug. 16, 2007, at the Taipei close, while the benchmark TAIEX lost 0.3 percent.
“It is facing intensive competition, especially in the China market,” said Shen Hua-jian (沈華堅), an analyst at Fubon Securities in Taipei, by telephone. “This will threaten its margin, which is already not doing that well.”
Hsinchu-based Macroblock reported that net income dropped by 50 percent to NT$31.9 million (US$973,674) in the three months ended June 30, compared with NT$64.24 million a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data.
SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) rated the company “sell” on July 21.
NT dollar slightly stronger
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose slightly by NT$0.05 to close at NT$32.768 against the greenback on turnover of US$656 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