TAIEX gains 0.68 percent
The TAIEX closed up 0.68 percent yesterday as buying was triggered by a strong rebound on Wall Street overnight because of better-than-expected US manufacturing activity data last month, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 52.57 points to 7,720.82, after moving between 7,715.31 and 7,780.53, on turnover of NT$115.78 billion (US$3.62 billion).
The market opened up 1.24 percent in a knee-jerk reaction to Wall Street’s 2.2 percent rise and gains posted by other major markets in the region, but after the index moved closer to the nearest resistance at about 7,800, profit-taking emerged, dealers said.
A total of 2,378 stocks closed up and 1,302 down, with 310 remaining unchanged.
Bank posts NT$663m profit
Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) posted a net profit of NT$663 million last month, boosting its accumulated net income to NT$5.03 billion for the first eight months, the bank said yesterday in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. That translates into NT$0.93 earnings per share, the filing said.
The state-run bank had a net worth of NT$114.35 billion as of Tuesday. In addition, the lender said it would transfer 100 million shares it bought back from the market in 2008 to employees at the price of NT$18.98 per share.
Employees intent on purchasing may do so between Tuesday next week and Sept. 16, the filing said.
III to work with Indian center
The Taiwan-based Institute for Information Industry (III, 資策會) said on Wednesday that it would collaborate with India’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) to develop 4G broadband wireless technologies and products.
The III and CEWIT signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) focusing on R&D in Taipei on Wednesday, marking the first cooperation agreement between the institutes, the III said.
The deal aims to help Taiwanese manufacturers become core network equipment suppliers, it said.
The institutes will start with cooperation in developing 4G relay station technologies, hoping that new communication products enable Taiwan’s manufacturers — mostly focused on original equipment manufacturing businesses — to earn higher profit margins by making network equipment instead of customer premises equipment, the III said in a press release.
Over-the-counter sales up 42%
Combined revenue from over-the-counter (OTC) companies in Taiwan totaled NT$708.8 billion (US$22.1 billion) in the first half of this year, up 42 percent from the same period last year, according to a report released yesterday by the GRETAI Securities Market.
The companies posted a pre-tax profit of NT$59 billion in the first six months, which represents an increase of NT$84.7 billion from last year, when a pre-tax loss of NT$25.7 billion was recorded.
The largest growth was seen in the semiconductor, electronic parts and components, photonics, computer and peripheral equipment, and financial sectors.
During the same period, revenue of emerging companies totaled NT$290.4 billion, a rise of 58 percent year-on-year. The companies reported pre-tax profit of NT$26.4 billion, a major improvement from last year, which saw a pre-tax loss of NT$3.1 billion.
The best performers in terms of pre-tax profit were the semiconductor, photonics, electronic parts and components, and steel industries.
NT rises against US dollar
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar, up NT$0.035 to close at NT$32.040.
Turnover totaled US$487 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