Financial sector boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX closed up 0.37 percent yesterday, as the financial sector extended gains from the previous session on an upbeat earnings outlook in anticipation of a wider interest rate spread, dealers said.
Buying also focused on property developers as investors expected a rising New Taiwan dollar would boost the value of their assets, they said.
The weighted index rose 33.64 points to 8,965.00 on turnover of NT$140.60 billion (US$4.82 billion).
Among the large cap financial firms, China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) rose 4.62 percent to close at NT$13.60 and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) added 3.06 percent to end at NT$23.60.
MediaTek gains on rating
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s largest integrated circuits designer, gained the most in more than five weeks after it was rated “overweight” at Barclays Capital by equity analyst Andrew Lu (陸行之).
The stock advanced 4 percent to NT$414 as of 11:40am, headed for the biggest jump since the close of Dec. 3. The share price estimate is NT$450 at Barclays.
Foxconn reports Shenzhen death
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), also known as Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), said a 25-year-old female employee was found dead outside a private residence in Shenzhen, China, on Friday last week.
The woman, an engineer, had worked at Foxconn’s Longhua campus in Shenzhen since 2005 and was on paid medical leave, the company said in an e-mailed statement responding to questions from Bloomberg News.
The employee, whose body was found in the city’s Yantian district, had been “treated compassionately,” the statement said.
Foxconn expressed condolences to her family and friends. It didn’t disclose her illness.
At least 10 members of Foxconn’s 1 million-strong workforce committed suicide last year.
Lite-On ups China investment
Lite-On Technology Corp’s (光寶科技) Perlos (Guangzhou) Electronic Components Co unit will invest as much as 76.4 million euros (US$99.1 million) in a factory in China for making radio modules, Taipei-based Lite-On said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Central bank sells more CDs
The central bank issued NT$232.9 billion in certificates of deposit (CD) yesterday, less than the NT$268.75 billion that matured, the bank said in a statement on its Web site.
It sold 30-day CDs at 0.74 percent, 91-day at 0.78 percent, and 182-day at 0.88 percent, according to the central bank’s statement.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar rose to close at its strongest level since 1997 on speculation the central bank will allow faster currency appreciation and raise interest rates to temper inflation.
Policymakers increased borrowing costs on Dec. 30 for a third time last year after consumer prices climbed the most in nine months in November. The currency also advanced as concern over Europe’s debt crisis ebbed following a pledge by Japan to buy government bonds in the euro region.
“Asian rates are on an uptrend due to inflation and Taiwan’s central bank may need to quicken the pace of rate hikes since they hold meetings only once each quarter,” said Frances Cheung, a senior strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. “Sentiment is also improving with the concern in Europe easing.”
The NT dollar rose 0.3 percent to NT$29.60 against its US counterpart as of the 4pm close, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
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