TAIEX inches up 0.27%
The TAIEX closed up 0.27 percent yesterday as profit taking emerged in late trading to erode early gains amid renewed fears that China will step up measures to tighten the money supply to combat inflation, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 22.67 points to 8,306.12, after moving between 8,226.71 and 8,372.16, on turnover of NT$97.88 billion (US$3.23 billion).
The market opened up 0.74 percent after overnight gains on Wall Street and moved to the day’s high before selling set in as investors witnessed losses suffered by markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong on fears of further interest rate hikes by China’s central bank, the dealers said.
Lingering concerns over domestic political uncertainty ahead of the Nov. 27 municipality elections have prompted many investors to retreat from the trading floor, they said.
A total of 2,144 stocks closed up and 1,649 were down with 441 remaining unchanged.
BOT cuts luxury home loans
Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行), a unit of the nation’s biggest financial services company, cut the amount of loans for buyers of luxury homes and property investors as the state-owned lender seeks to reduce credit risk.
The Taipei-based lender reduced the loan-to-value ratio for buyers of a second property in the metropolitan Taipei area to 65 percent from 70 percent, Bank of Taiwan vice president Bruce Yang (楊豊彥) said yesterday. The ratio also applies to those seeking loans to buy properties valued above NT$100 million, he said.
Asia Cement, Shanshui sign MOU
Taiwan-listed Asia Cement Corp (亞泥) intends to purchase less than 10 percent of China Shanshui Cement Group Ltd (山水水泥) as part of planned joint ventures in Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, according to a statement to Hong Kong’s stock exchange yesterday evening.
Asia Cement (China) Holdings Corp (亞泥中國) told the exchange that it, Asia Cement Corp and Shanshui have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Asia Cement (China) will take stakes of not more than 30 percent in joint venture companies under the arrangement, its statement said. The ventures will be in the cement and construction raw-material industries, the statement said.
TLC invests in Jining Sunrich
TLC Capital Co (弘鼎創投), a unit of United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), plans to invest an additional US$11.3 million in China’s Jining Sunrich Solar Corp (濟寧華瀚光伏能源), the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday.
UMC and units TLC Capital and Fortune Venture Capital Corp (宏誠創投) are investing a further NT$3.4 billion in NexPower Technology Corp (聯相光電), the chipmaker said in separate statements on Thursday.
NT dollar gains on GDP growth
The New Taiwan dollar completed a weekly gain after the economy expanded more than forecast in the third quarter.
The local currency, which was trading 1.3 percent higher before the end of the trading session, pared gains as the central bank bought the US dollar, according to two traders familiar with the matter who declined to be identified.
The NT dollar gained 0.2 percent yesterday and 0.3 percent this week to NT$30.673 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency has appreciated 5.5 percent this year as exchange data show overseas funds bought US$6.3 billion more Taiwanese stocks than they sold during the period.
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