TAIEX closes up
The TAIEX closed up 0.33 percent yesterday as buying extended from the end of last week, with market sentiment further lifted by the latest strong showing on Wall Street after satisfactory European bank stress test results, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 26.23 points to 7,787.45 after moving between 7,765.68 and 7,807.07 on turnover of NT$102.28 billion (US$3.18 billion).
Central bank reins in mortgages
The central bank reiterated home mortgages must be obtained through proper means, and that loans obtained for home repairs, working capital and other purposes cannot be used to buy property.
“We will step up scrutiny, as mortgages are a key area of our financial examination,” the central bank said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
The bank is seeking to rein in property speculation as record-low interest rates spur borrowing and higher prices.
The central bank denied the media reports claiming that an increase in working-capital loans last month at the five state-run banks, including Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作今金庫銀行) , was related to issues concerning property speculation.
Epistar buys into Huga Optotech
Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s top LED chipmaker, yesterday said it has obtained 49.6 million new shares in Huga Optotech Inc (廣鎵光電) for NT$1.5 billion.
Epistar bought Huga shares at NT$30 each, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The share subscription is in line with an announcement in May, when Epistar said it would become Huga’s largest shareholder with a 47.88 percent stake through a new share subscription and a share-swap plan.
The Fair Trade Commission earlier this month approved the deal.
Hon Hai expands in China
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co has registered to build two factories in China’s Henan province, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing an unnamed local official.
Nanya plans delayed
Nanya Technology Corp’s (南亞科技) share-sale plan will be delayed after the Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday asked the company to provide more information, company vice president Pai Pei-lin said by telephone yesterday.
The company said last month it plans to sell 600 million new shares to raise funds to buy equipment.
FSC rejects Powerchip plan
The Financial Supervisory Commission rejected Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶) plans to raise as much as US$179 million selling shares because of weak financials, according to a statement on the regulator’s Web site today.
The chipmaker had an accumulated loss of NT$57.6 billion as of March 31, equivalent to about 63.7 percent of its paid-in capital, the statement said.
The Powerchip board last month approved a plan to sell between 650 million and 800 million new shares in domestic and overseas markets in the form of global depositary receipts.
Capital Securities eyes TIS
Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) yesterday announced plans to buy a 67 percent to 100 percent stake in Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券), paying NT$12.5 per share.
The company says it expects to complete the acquisition by the end of this year, paying cash and stock.
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