Share prices close lower
Share prices closed 1.02 percent lower yesterday as market sentiment was dampened by Wall Street’s continued weakness overnight amid lingering concerns about the global economy after a weaker US jobs report, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 75.31 points to 7,254.06, after moving between 7,251.60 and 7,327.40, on turnover of NT$83.32 billion (US$2.58 billion).
The textile sector suffered the heaviest losses, falling 1.9 percent.
“The latest job report [of the ADP Employer Services] is pointing to a possible gloomy payroll data to be released by the US government later this week,” Mega Securities (兆豐證券) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
ADP, a US human resources and payroll data provider, reported the US gained 13,000 jobs last month, significantly lower than the estimated 61,000.
“It seems that doubts about the global economy are increasing and concerns over global demand are escalating accordingly,” Huang said. “That’s why investors at home and abroad rushed to dump their stocks.”
Market confidence was further hurt as the local bourse failed to make a comeback after Wednesday’s losses, Huang said.
“I suspect the selling was among foreign institutional investors who have made net sales on the local bourse in recent trading sessions,” Huang said.
Without immediate resolution to the debt problems in Europe, global markets are very likely to remain volatile, he added.
Hong Tai wins four plots
Hong Tai Life Insurance Co (宏泰人壽) yesterday acquired four plots of land in Tamsui, Taipei, totaling 34,664 ping (114,565m²), for NT$8.166 billion (US$252.8 million), or a unit price of between NT$230,000 and NT$241,000 per ping, realtors said yesterday.
Hong Tai owns a total of 77,000 ping of land there — the largest among its peers.
Another bidder, AdvanceTek Development Co (名軒開發), bought the first 7,625 ping plot of land for NT$1.52 billion, or NT$199,000 per ping, realtors said.
Both Hong Tai and AdvanceTek took part in the auctions organized by the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior to liquidate a total of eight parcels of land there, three of which failed.
Hon Hai approves investment
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, said its board approved plans to invest an additional US$140 million into a Singapore-based unit.
Hon Hai plans to buy a further 140 million shares of Foxconn Image & Printing Product Pte at US$1 each, the Taipei-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday. The transaction is a long-term investment it said, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, Daiwa-Cathay Capital Markets (大和國泰證券) yesterday recommended a “sell” rating on Hon Hai on concerns over the impact of rising wages in China.
The company’s plan to move its plants to inner China for cheaper labor will not save on costs because the base salary offered in Henan is similar to that in Shenzhen, Daiwa-Cathay analyst Calvin Huang (黃文堯) said in a note to clients.
NT dollar weakens slightly
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday slightly weakened by NT$0.019 to close at NT$32.297 against its US counterpart on a possible intervention from the central bank.
Turnover was US$1.001 billion.
In addition, the central bank yesterday issued NT$115 billion in certificates of deposit, more than the NT$94.7 billion that matured, a statement on its Web site said.
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