TAIEX down 1.22 percent
The TAIEX closed down 1.22 percent yesterday, joining other Asian markets in a recent fall amid higher international oil prices, dealers said.
The local bourse closed 107.12 points lower, ending at 8,642.90, after moving between 8,635.75 and 8,754.41 on turnover of NT$117.275 billion (US$3.976 billion).
A total of 1,279 stocks closed up, 3,125 were down and 374 remained unchanged.
Many businesses mull raises
More than 30 percent of businesses in Taiwan are willing to raise their employees’ salaries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“Hopefully, more businesses will consider giving pay raises, and with higher increases,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said to reporters after a legislative session.
According to a survey conducted by the ministry in late January, 52 percent of large corporations were willing to raise salaries, but fewer small and medium-sized enterprises would follow suit.
The pay raises could average 3 to 4 percent, the survey showed.
3M, Quanta to set up venture
3M Co and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) will set up a Singapore-based venture to make projected capacitive touch solutions, Quanta said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Ruen Chen gives documents
Ruen Chen Investment Holding Co (潤成投資) yesterday submitted more documents related to its application to buy American International Group Inc’s (AIG) Taiwanese life insurance unit, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement.
Ruen Chen on Feb. 10 applied to the regulator to acquire 97.57 percent of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽). AIG in January agreed to sell a 97.57 percent stake in Nan Shan to Ruen Chen for US$2.16 billion.
Compal revenues drop 37%
Taiwan’s second-largest notebook contract maker, Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), saw last month’s revenue drop 37 percent year-on-year to NT$43.57 billion (US$1.48 billion).
It said in a statement yesterday that on a month-on-month basis, the decline was 18.5 percent, attributing the drop to the recall of flawed Sandy Bridge chipsets from Intel Corp.
Compal’s notebook shipments hit a two-year low to 2.7 million units, down 18 percent from January, it said.
China Steel mulls India plant
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, might build a steel coil facility in India, executive vice president David Du (杜金陵) said yesterday.
The Kaohsiung-based company plans to a total investment of NT$200 billion over the next four years, including spending on projects in Taiwan and Vietnam, vice president K.H. Chang (張景星) said.
TPK hires Nomura, JPMorgan
TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), a supplier of touch-panels for Apple Inc’s iPad, has hired Nomura Holdings Inc and JPMorgan Chase to arrange a US$400 million convertible bond issue.
TPK aims to complete the sale by the end of June and will list the notes in Singapore, chief financial officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) said in a phone interview yesterday.
Funds will be used to expand factories and buy equipment, the Taipei-based company said in an exchange filing on Tuesday.
NT dollar dips NT$0.111
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.111, to close at NT$29.506.
Turnover totaled US$1.071 billion during the trading session.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts