The NT dollar advanced the most in six weeks as economists predicted exports grew for a 13th month, boosting speculation investors will increase holdings of Taiwan’s assets.
The currency gained for a third day as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the purchase of more bonds beyond the US$600 billion announced last month is “certainly possible,” according to a transcript of an interview on CBS Corp.
Overseas shipments rose 18.9 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with an increase of 21.9 percent the previous month, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey before a Ministry of Finance report tomorrow. Bonds gained.
“Economic data is still in a healthy situation,” said Yili Tang, head of the currency division at Shinkong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) in Taipei. “Hot money will come into Asia, no doubt. The central bank will control the market.”
The NT dollar ended 0.4 percent stronger at NT$30.625 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency has appreciated 3.4 percent so far this quarter, the best performance among Asia’s most-traded currencies.
Overseas funds bought US$102 million more Taiwanese stocks than they sold yesterday, boosting net purchases this year to US$7.06 billion, exchange data showed.
Taiwan’s currency was up 2 percent a minute before the close and later trimmed gains as the central bank sold the local dollar, said a trader familiar with the authority’s operations, who declined to be identified.
The NT dollar has pared gains or weakened in the final minutes of trading on most days in the past eight months as policy makers bought the US dollar, according to traders familiar with the central bank’s operations who declined to be identified. Central banks intervene in currency markets by arranging purchases or sales of foreign exchange.
The yield on the 2 percent note due in July 2015 fell one basis point to 0.990 percent, according to GRETAI Securities Market, the nation’s biggest exchange for bonds. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Meanwhile, China’s yuan rose against the US dollar ahead of a meeting of European finance ministers to discuss expanding the region’s bailout fund to curb the debt crisis.
The People’s Bank of China (中國人民銀行), which manages the exchange rate using a basket of currencies of major trading partners, set the yuan rate 0.1 percent higher at 6.6515 yuan against the US dollar, stronger for a third day. Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said on Saturday the US$1 trillion fund may be increased if ministers decide to introduce a larger permanent facility.
“Europe will continue to be the dominant issue,” said Patrick Perret-Green, head of Asian foreign-exchange strategy at Citigroup Inc. “The yuan has only appreciated mildly compared to the bounce of other currencies against the dollar.”
The yuan rose 0.2 percent to 6.6477 yuan per US dollar as of 6pm in Shanghai, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
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