Optimism drives TAIEX higher
The TAIEX closed up 1.49 percent yesterday, led by high-tech stocks amid market optimism, dealers said.
The benchmark index rose 127.91 points to 8,727.56, after moving between 8,611.79 and 8,734.24, on turnover of NT$126.462 billion (US$4.27 billion).
A total of 2,942 stocks closed up, 1,432 finished down and 379 remained unchanged.
Formosa Group eyes Singapore
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), Taiwan’s biggest industrial conglomerate, said it was studying the feasibility of investing in Singapore.
Group chairman William Wong (王文淵) may visit possible investment locations, including Singapore, group spokesman Frank Fu (傅陳卿) said by phone yesterday.
The group may spend more than NT$250 billion (US$8.4 billion) to build a refinery and petrochemical complex in Singapore, the Chinese-language Commercial Times said.
Fu declined to comment.
Powerchip loans extended
Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) has received a six-month extension for loan payments from the majority of 41 banks led by Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Credit card numbers rise
The number of credit cards in circulation totaled 30.77 million at the end of January, rising slightly from 30.71 million one month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
However, aggregate credit card charge amounted to NT$145 billion (US$4.89 billion) at the end of January, slowing from NT$146.3 billion a month earlier, it said.
Revolving credit loans reached NT$178.4 billion, falling NT$2.6 billion from NT$181 billion one month earlier, it said.
All credit card issuers except for Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) kept their bad loan ratio below 3 percent, it said.
Cathay Life buys Hutchison IPO
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) acquired US$100 million of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust’s (和記港口控股信托) initial public offering, parent Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
Google Nexus S coming
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the country’s second-largest telecom operator, said yesterday it would begin to sell Google Nexus S smartphones late this month, becoming the first local carrier to introduce the Google handset.
The Nexus S runs on Google’s Android 2.3 operating system Gingerbread, which features 3D graphics and near field communication technology that enables mobile payments and electronic commerce services, Taiwan Mobile said in a statement at a press conference to launch the product.
Computex, CeBIT to sign pact
The organizer of Computex Taipei, the world’s second-largest computer trade show, said yesterday it would sign a deal today with the organizer of the CeBIT fair for joint promotion of the shows.
“The signing of the memorandum of understanding between Computex Taipei and CeBIT will be aimed at enhancing the marketing of the world’s two largest ICT [information and communications technologies] shows,” Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) president and CEO Chao Yung-chuan (趙永全) said in a statement.
NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar rose NT$0.094 to close at NT$29.66 against the US dollar on turnover of US$928 million yesterday, Taipei Forex data showed.
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