Taiwan was retained in the “Advanced Emerging” market category in the latest annual country classification review released by the FTSE Group yesterday.
The nation has been on the global index provider’s watch list for an upgrade for several years, but FTSE said in a press release that Taiwan would be reviewed again in September next year for possible promotion to the category of “developed” market.
“I believe the result should not have a negative impact on the stock market,” said Kevin Chung (鐘國忠), an analyst with Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧). “An upgrade by FTSE to ‘developed’ market would mean the market is less risky for investors and therefore they would add more local shares to their portfolios, but Taiwan has to open up its markets more to gain that status, which could be a risk to Taiwan as the market is small and more vulnerable to ups and downs.”
South Korea was upgraded to “developed” market last year, joining Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.
Under FTSE’s quality of markets criteria, the Taiwanese stock market was less open to global investors, with six categories listed as “restricted,” including a “free and well-developed foreign exchange market,” “stock lending permitted” and “off-exchange transactions permitted.”
In the FTSE’s latest review, the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Turkey were upgraded to “advanced emerging” from “secondary emerging” markets, while China, Colombia, Greece, Kazakhstan and Kuwait are still on the “watch list” for possible inclusion or promotion.
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