TAIEX closes slightly lower
Share prices closed down marginally yesterday on profit taking as the market moved closer to the nearest resistance level of about 7,600 points after recent significant gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 14.02 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 7,534.46, after moving between 7,517.68 and 7,565.37, on turnover of NT$103.53 billion (US$3.2 billion).
A total of 1,472 stocks closed down, 1,599 were up and 390 remained unchanged.
MOU signed with Panama
Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Panama yesterday to cooperate in the development of public key infrastructure (PKI) that would pave the way for future e-commerce collaboration.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) and Panamanian Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Ricardo Quijano signed the MOU yesterday morning in Taipei.
PKI is a certification mechanism for online trading that ensures the safety of user identities and details of e-commerce transactions.
A PKI allows users of an unsecured public network to safely and privately exchange data and money by using coded “keys” provided by a trusted third party.
Inotera to raise spending
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), the nation’s third-largest memory chipmaker, plans to raise its spending budget this year as it speeds up purchases of equipment, president Charles Kau (高啟全) said by telephone yesterday.
Inotera will raise its spending above an earlier NT$52 billion projection as it brings forward the purchase of 42-nanometer equipment by one quarter, to later this year instead of early next year, Kau said.
He denied a Reuters report that said the company would increase spending this year to between NT$57 billion and NT$60 billion, citing two sources the agency didn’t name. Kau said the amount hasn’t been decided.
Lite-On revenue hits record high
Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$11.27 billion for last month, up 6 percent month-on-month and 40 percent year-on-year, hitting a record monthly high.
The Taipei-based company attributed the impressive sales growth to its ongoing expansion in market share, coupled with stable demand, according to a press release.
In the second quarter, Lite-On Technology said its consolidated revenue totaled NT$32.35 billion, up 13 percent from the previous quarter and 43 percent from a year earlier, which the company said was also a record quarterly high, capping six consecutive quarters of growth.
In the first six months of the year, cumulative sales rose 45 percent to NT$61 billion compared with the same period last year, the company said.
Barclays headhunts bankers
Barclays PLC hired Peter Ding (丁一賓) and Gary Kuo (郭冠群) from Morgan Stanley to jointly run its Greater China investment banking unit, two people with knowledge of the appointments said.
Ding, the former co-head of mergers and acquisitions for the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan at Morgan Stanley, and Kuo, the Wall Street firm’s former Taiwan chairman, will become co-heads of investment banking for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the people said, declining to be identified.
Ding and Kuo bring the number of senior executives in Asia leaving Morgan Stanley for London-based Barclays to four in the past year.
NT dollar down slightly
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.020 to NT$32.220. Turnover totaled US$496 million during the trading session.
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