TAIEX edges higher
Share prices closed higher yesterday, with the TAIEX index moving up 25.72 points, or 0.31 percent, to close at 8,117.75.
The local bourse opened at 8,149.76 and fluctuated between a low of 8,092.94 and a high of 8,152.53 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$105.91 billion (US$3.36 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,625 to 1,468, with 285 stocks remaining unchanged.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$ 3.55 billion worth of shares.
Giant to invest in China plant
Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械), the world’s largest bicycle maker by revenue, said yesterday it plans to invest an initial US$36 million in a new bicycle and electric car plant in eastern China.
Giant said it will start building the plant, located in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, before the end of June. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.5 million bicycles once it becomes operational next year, the company said.
“The 36 million dollars will be spent on the bicycle production facilities. In the second stage, we will invest additional funds in electric car manufacturing,” company spokesman Hsu Li-chung (許立忠) said.
Apart from bicycle and electric car manufacturing, the new Kunshan plant will produce bicycle frames and carbon fiber, Hsu said.
Giant currently operates five factories in China, producing bicycles, electric cars and aluminum alloy.
Chunghwa Q1 profit up 12%
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest phone operator, posted a 12 percent rise in first-quarter profit as it boosted revenue in its fiber-optic and mobile Internet businesses and cut costs.
Net income climbed to NT$12.1 billion compared with NT$10.79 billion a year earlier, the Taipei-based company said in a statement yesterday.
Chunghwa forecast a profit of NT$11.3 billion on Feb. 9, while analysts expected NT$11 billion, according to the median of four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Asustek raises Asint stake
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which made the world’s first netbook computer, said yesterday it increased its holding in local computer memory module company Asint Technology Corp (昱聯科技) amid rising memory chip prices.
The company said it bought another 8.33 percent share of Asint in January via its fully-owned investment fund, bringing its total holding to about 25 percent, up from 16.67 percent.
Another major shareholder is local chip designer Silicon Integrated Systems Corp (矽統科技), which holds about a 20 percent stake in Asint.
WiMAX Forum opens in Taipei
An international organization that focuses on WiMAX wireless technology will open its third annual trade show today in Taipei.
WiMAX Forum Congress Asia, which runs through tomorrow at the Taipei International Convention Center, will be held in Taiwan for the first time.
The event is expected to be attended by more than 2,000 representatives from around the world, according to the WiMAX Forum Web site. It will also feature a Taiwanese pavilion in association with the semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute to showcase local WiMAX technology.
NT dollar posts slight gain
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.055 to close at NT$31.560. Turnover was US$942 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the