TAIEX down ahead of election
The TAIEX closed down 0.45 percent yesterday as market sentiment was overshadowed by today’s municipal elections, dealers said. The TAIEX fell 37.84 points and closed at the day’s low of 8,312.15, off a high of 8,371.27, on turnover of NT$111.51 billion (US$3.67 billion).
The market opened up 0.25 percent and moved to the day’s high on follow-through buying from the previous session before pressure set in from political uncertainty ahead of today’s polls, to reverse the early gains, dealers said.
FSC not contacted in Chu case
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said it hasn’t been contacted by the US about Don Ching Trang Chu, who was charged with arranging for insiders at publicly traded companies to improperly provide information to his firm’s clients.
“We haven’t received any notification from the [US Securities and Exchange Commission] or any US agencies about the Don Chu case,” Financial Supervisory Commission Secretary-General Lin Tung-liang (林棟樑) said yesterday.
US authorities arrested Chu, who was Primary Global Research LLC’s Taiwan liaison, on charges that he passed tips to Richard Choo-Beng Lee, a former partner at San Jose, California-based Spherix Capital LLC, beginning in late 2008, according to a criminal complaint.
Green Energy to up investment
The board of the nation’s biggest solar wafer maker, Green Energy Technology Corp (綠能科技), yesterday approved management’s plan to increase investment by about 9 percent at its new Tainan plant.
Green Energy now plans to spend NT$6.29 billion on expanding capacity at the plant to better meet customer demand, compared with the NT$5.77 billion originally estimated. The company said customer demand has exceeded its supply by about 1.5 times over the past one-and-a-half years.
The new plant, which would have an annual output of 500 megawatts, is set to start mass production in the second quarter of next year.
DelSolar announces purchase
DelSolar Co (旺能光電) bought NT$506 million of equipment from parent Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) between Dec. 17 last year and Thursday, the Hsinchu-based solar cell maker said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Meanwhile, Delta Electronics (Chenzhou) Co spent 141 million yuan (US$21.2 million) to acquire factory and dormitory buildings in China’s Hunan Province, parent Delta Electronics said in its statement.
Cathay Life buys into Primax
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) acquired 20 million shares, or a 5.19 percent stake, in Primax Electronics Ltd (致伸電子) for NT$480 million, the insurer’s parent, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday.
Synnex to sell convertible bonds
Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際) will sell as much as NT$5 billion of convertible bonds at zero coupon, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday.
The proceeds will be used to repay bank loans and improve its financial structure, the company said. The maturity has still not been decided, the statement said.
NT dollar falls NT$0.03
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.03, to close at NT$30.83.
Turnover totaled US$676 million during the trading session.
The central bank was again seen intervening late in the trading session to boost the US dollar to above the NT$30.5 level, dealers said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”