TAIEX rebounds
The TAIEX closed up 0.56 percent yesterday, surpassing the 8,900 mark for the first time in two months, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed at 8,901.72, gaining 49.74 points on the day and turning around from a daytime low of 8,828.92. Trade volume was at NT$112.625 billion (US$3.89 billion).
A total of 2,651 stocks closed up, 1,624 finished down, and 617 remained unchanged.
Macronix revenues drop
Local memory chipmaker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday said revenues decreased 15.9 percent last month to NT$2.02 billion from February and dropped 10 percent from a year earlier.
That brought the chipmaker’s first-quarter revenues to NT$6.573 billion, hitting the low end of its revenue target, which ranged from NT$6.5 billion to NT$6.8 billion.
Macronix’s first-quarter revenues rose 19 percent from NT$5.51 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, or unchanged from NT$6.568 billion a year ago.
E Ink revenues rise 18%
E Ink Holding Inc (元太科技), the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday posted revenues of NT$3.36 billion last month, an 18 percent increase from February’s NT$2.84 billion, bringing its first-quarter revenues to historical high of NT$10.09 billion.
First-quarter revenues expanded 3.72 percent from NT$9.73 billion in the final quarter of last year. On an annual basis, the first-quarter revenues doubled from NT$5 billion in the prior year.
Compal buying back shares
Compal Electronics Inc’s (仁寶電腦) board approved a plan to buy back 100 million common shares at between NT$25.65 and NT$49.19 each from today through June 7, the firm said in a statement to Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The stock repurchase equals to 2.26 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, the statement said.
Deltra Electronics posts gains
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the world’s top switching power supply maker, yesterday said consolidated revenue totaled NT$15.3 billion (US$526.7 million) last month.
It represented a 38 percent increase over NT$11.1 billion in February and a 23 percent rise compared to NT$12.4 billion in March last year, the company said.
First-quarter revenue totaled NT$40.2 billion, up 20 percent from NT$33.5 billion for the same period last year, it said.
Far EasTone inks Wi-Fi deal
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) yesteday said it has signed an agreement with China Mobile (中國移動) to help China’s top wireless telecoms service provider build Wi-Fi network in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Far EasTone said it would help provide travel, traffic and long-distance medical care services via cloud computing technology.
Shih to visit US next month
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) will lead a delegation to the US next month to attend the APEC 2011 Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade, the Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting and the Senior Official Meeting in Big Sky, Montana.
Lily Hsu (徐儷文), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organization, said the meetings would focus on issues aimed at pursuing a free and open trade and investment environment.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei foreign exchange market yesterday, up NT$0.1 to close at NT$29.05. Turnover totaled US$1.109 billion.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained