TAIEX closes up
The TAIEX closed up 0.18 percent yesterday as buying in select old economy stocks extended from the previous session and offset weakness in the semiconductor sector, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 14.18 points to 7,798.99, after moving between 7,738.48 and 7,799.57, on turnover of NT$118.76 billion (US$3.71 billion).
The market opened flat amid cautious sentiment after the US reported worse than expected durable goods orders data overnight, dealers said.
Although rotational buying emerged to pick up foodstuff and cement stocks, once the index fell to the support level of 7,700 several major integrated circuit shares continued to weaken ahead of the release second quarter results.
A total of 1,683 stocks closed up and 1,736 down, with 327 remaining unchanged.
Chunghwa Telecom signs MOU
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the largest telecoms operator in Taiwan, said yesterday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corp (SPTC) to facilitate future cooperation and improve the quality of service provided by the African company.
Chunghwa Telecom chairman Lu Shyue-ching (呂學錦) and SPTC chairman Amon Dlamini signed the MOU in Taipei yesterday.
The MOU is aimed at broadening the scope of cooperation, to provide technological assistance and share Internet development with Swaziland, which is one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, Chunghwa Telecom said.
Fifth CD auction launched
The central bank is set to auction another NT$100 billion in 364-day certificates of deposit (CD) on Aug. 9 as it continues to absorb excessive funds in the market. That will mark the bank’s fifth auction of such CDs this year.
The previous four sales of CDs with a total value of NT$400 billion were considered tantamount to hiking the reserve requirement ratio by 1.58 percentage points.
The central bank raised its key policy rates by 0.125 percentage points and adopted selective credit controls last month to absorb excess liquidity in the banking system and to rein in rocketing housing prices in the Greater Taipei area.
The last sale of CDs yielded an average interest rate of 0.729 percent with a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.8 times, compared with an average interest rate of 0.67 percent from the sales on June 11, which had a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.72 times.
Private placements probed
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is set to hold a public hearing today to solicit opinion on its plan to strengthen regulations on public company fund-raising via private placements, in addition to banks and financial holding companies.
The FSC said on Tuesday that financially healthy public companies should also raise capital through public offerings rather than private placements, the same as banks and financial holdings, but added that relevant regulations must be amended first.
Data provided by the FSC showed that in the first half of this year, the amount of funds raised by public companies through private placements was NT$58.64 billion, accounting for only 18.3 percent of total capital raised via both public offerings and private placements.
NT dollar closes up
The New Taiwan dollar continued to gain ground against the US dollar yesterday, rising NT$0.002 to close at NT$32.068.
Turnover totaled US$694 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],”
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