TAIEX closes lower
The TAIEX closed down 0.13 percent yesterday after gains posted by old economy stocks were offset by slowing momentum in the high-tech sector as concerns lingered over global demand in the second half of the year, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed the day at 7,931.09, off a high of 7,973.15, on turnover of NT$132.36 billion (US$4.14 billion).
The market opened up 0.27 percent and quickly moved to the day’s high as select non-high tech sectors with close business ties to China extended gains from the previous session. However, the electronics sector remained lackluster amid concerns over the possibility of a slowdown in the global economy, prompting investors to cut their holdings, dealers said.
A total of 1,842 stocks closed down and 1,870 finished higher, while 300 remained unchanged.
FPC sells five-year bonds
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC, 台塑石化) sold NT$6 billion in five-year bonds that will pay an annual interest of 1.33 percent, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Proceeds will be used to repay existing debt and improve the company’s financial structure, the oil refiner said.
HannStar approves expansion
HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), the nation’s smallest LCD panel maker, yesterday said its board had approved a plan to invest NT$4.72 billion to expand its color filter capacity, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The flat-panel maker plans to increase its monthly color filter capacity by 50,000 units at a 5.3-generation plant. With the new capacity, HannStar would not have to buy color filters, one of the key components in assembling LCD panels, from other companies.
Foxconn removes safety nets
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), the electronics manufacturer which faced a spate of suicides at its plants in China earlier this year, has decided to remove safety nets at its Taiyuan campus in Shanxi Province, the Taipei-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Behavior Technology fined
Behavior Technology Computer Corp (BTC, 英群企業) was fined NT$30,000 by the Taiwan Stock Exchange after the computer peripherals manufacturer failed to disclose it signed contracts with two companies on Jan. 1 last year, the stock exchange said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
Z-Obee to list TDRs
Z-Obee Holdings Ltd, a China-based cellphone and communications equipment producer and distributor, is expected to list Taiwan depositary receipts (TDRs) in the fourth quarter of this year, underwriter Polaris Securities (寶來證券) said on Monday.
“Z-Obee has filed an application with the Taiwan Stock Exchange to issue TDRs in the hope of raising NT$880 million [US$27.53 million] for future business expansion,” said a Polaris Securities official in charge of the share sale plan.
Z-Obee was listed on the Singapore Exchange in November last year and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March.
According to the company’s prospectus, Z-Obee is planning to issue up to 80 million TDRs, each one of which will represent one common share at NT$11 per unit.
NT dollar closes higher
The New Taiwan dollar rose NT$0.04 against the US dollar to close at NT$31.970 yesterday.
Turnover totaled US$499 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],”
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
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