TAIEX dips 0.78 percent
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX moving down 59.72 points, or 0.78 percent, to close at 7,569.8.
The bourse opened at the day’s high of 7,664 and hit a low of 7,524.19 at one point during trading. Market turnover totaled NT$94.43 billion (US$2.95 billion).
Seven of the eight major stock categories lost ground, with banking and financial shares moving down the most at 1.79 percent.
Textile shares lost 0.92 percent, cement shares dropped 0.84 percent, machinery and electronics issues fell 0.61 percent, plastic and chemical stocks lost 0.52 percent, and paper and pulp shares, as well as construction shares, were down 0.42 percent.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors sold a net NT$4 billion in shares.
UMC to hire 1,000 engineers
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-largest contract chip maker, said yesterday it would hire 1,000 engineers as part of its expansion project this year to meet growing demand.
The vacancies are in equipment, chip production and research and development for the expansion of its facilities in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, a company statement said.
UMC has about 13,000 employees worldwide. Hit hard during the global downturn, the company had asked employees to take unpaid leave until early last year.
But with the economy picking up, the company said last month it posted a net profit of NT$4.4 billion (US$137 million) in the three months to December owing to strong demand.
It expected capital expenditure for this year to range between US$1.2 billion and US$1.5 billion, up from US$500 million last year.
Prime View soars on report
Prime View International Co (元太科技) rose in Taipei trading after the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported the company as saying sales last month would be little changed from January despite a traditionally weak season.
The stock gained 3.6 percent to close at NT$63.60, outpacing the TAIEX which dropped 0.78 percent.
The Commercial Times said the company would remain the top electronic book maker even with more competitors, without citing anyone.
The company spokesman wasn’t available for comment.
NT dollar rises further
The New Taiwan dollar traded near its strongest level in a month on speculation exporters bought the currency to prevent further gains from eroding overseas earnings.
The currency has advanced 0.3 percent so far this week.
A Ministry of Finance report on Monday may show exports increased 32.9 percent last month from a year earlier, a fourth monthly gain, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
“Exporters are selling the US dollar because it broke NT$32,” said Yang Kung-yi (楊恭逸), a currency trader at Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank (上海商銀) in Taipei. “There’s some nervousness about the Taiwan dollar going stronger. The stock market is still strong. Foreign funds are coming in.”
The NT dollar closed at NT$31.988 against the greenback, Taipei Forex Inc said. It touched NT$31.915, the strongest level since Feb. 6.
“The central bank still wants to keep the Taiwan dollar weak,” said Yang.
Central banks intervene in currency markets by arranging purchases or sales of foreign exchange.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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