Share prices close lower
Shrugging off a rebound on Wall Street overnight, share prices closed 1.12 percent lower yesterday in heavy trading amid fears that rising wages in China will erode the earnings of Taiwanese companies operating there, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 80.32 points at 7,071.67, after moving between 7,048.60 and 7,193.04, on turnover of NT$91.47 billion (US$2.82 billion).
A total of 2,245 stocks closed down, while 674 went up, with 258 stocks unchanged.
China Steel restarts furnace
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steel producer, yesterday restarted its No. 1 blast furnace after 150 days of maintenance, the CNA reported.
UBS raises GDP growth outlook
UBS AG yesterday forecast that the nation’s GDP growth would reach 6.6 percent this year, up from its previous estimate of 5 percent, said Kevin Hsiao (蕭正義), director of wealth management research at the Swiss bank’s Taipei branch.
Hsiao attributed the bank’s upward adjustment in its GDP forecast to Taiwan’s stronger-than-expected economic growth in the first two quarters and rising exports to emerging markets and Southeast Asian nations.
He said he expected the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points in September.
BCCT re-elects Crowhurst
The British Chamber of Commerce Taipei (BCCT) yesterday announced that Peter Crowhurst of ING Real Estate Investment Management had been re-elected chairman of the chamber.
In the BCCT annual report to members, Crowhurst reported that last year had been a very good year for the chamber, with an array of business and social events including two or three high-profile activities every month that attracted a total of more than 1,300 people last year.
The chairman outlined a number of planned business programs, such as a networking event aimed at businesswomen in Taiwan and “Chairman’s Quarterly Dinners” featuring high-profile guest speakers.
Crowhurst plans to continue to raise the chamber’s profile and focus on promoting trade between British and Taiwanese companies, as well as developing innovative business and social events that will appeal to its divergent membership.
Tim Basford, HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Ltd’s chief technology and services officer for Taiwan, will be the new vice chairman and Richard Smith, director of the UK Education Advisory Service, will serve a second term as treasurer
ITRI signs Solarprint deal
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) signed a memorandum of understanding with Solarprint Ltd of Ireland on Tuesday to cooperate in the development of third-generation solar cells.
Solarprint has developed dye sensitized solar cells, which CEO Mazhar Bari said are third-generation cells able to transform solar energy into power more efficiently than conventional solar cells and also cost less to produce.
The commercialization of dye-sensitized cells has been limited by its use of an electrolyte that has stability problems in varying temperatures.
Solarprint said it has solved the problem, opening the way for more potential applications.
NT dollar drops NT$0.01
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday dropped against the US currency, eding down NT$0.01 to close at the day’s low of NT$32.520. Turnover was US$761 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