TAIEX chalks up small gain
The TAIEX extended gains from the previous session and closed up 0.13 percent yesterday, led by the retail sector’s 4.07 percent rally.
The index rose 11.78 points to close at 8,969.43, after moving between 8,956.07 and 8,992.67, on turnover of NT$113.765 billion (US$3.94 billion). Yesterday’s gains capped off a total run of 251.31 points for the week.
A total of 2,226 stocks closed up, 2,106 finished down and 511 remained unchanged.
The financial sector moved up 0.7 percent on news that China Banking Regulatory Commission Chairman Liu Mingkang (劉明康) is arriving in Taiwan today.
Cement shares saw the heaviest selling, falling 1.3 percent, stock exchange data showed.
New home loans hit record
New home loans by the nation’s five leading banks hit a record NT$62.59 billion last month, the central bank said yesterday.
The five — Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) — accounted for about 40 percent of overall mortgage lending business, data showed.
“Given fewer working days in February, some of the loans were delayed to last month, which further boosted the overall value of new home loans,” Dawn Chen (陳一端), deputy chief of the central bank’s economic research department, told a media briefing.
Government housing grants for young buyers also spurred new home loans last month, Chen said.
Cathay buys Taipei land
Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設), the nation’s second-largest construction company, bought a plot of land in Taipei City for NT$1.55 billion, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Cathay Real Estate, along with Cathay Financial Holding Co (金控), the nation’s largest financial services provider, and Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the nation’s largest life insurer, are members of the Lin Yuan Group (霖園集團).
Nokia, Motorola deal approved
Chinese regulators have approved the acquisition of Motorola Solutions Inc’s network business by Nokia Siemens Networks and the US$975 million deal should close next week, Nokia Corp said on Thursday.
The sale was part of Motorola’s restructuring, but was delayed after Beijing launched an anti-monopoly investigation.
Chinese regulators gave “unconditional approval,” clearing the last regulatory obstacle, and the deal will close on Friday next week, Nokia said.
Nokia Siemens Networks is the network equipment-making joint venture of Nokia and Germany’s Siemens AG.
The Chinese approval also follows the settlement of a lawsuit in a US federal court against Motorola by a Chinese network equipment maker, Huawei Technologies (華為). Huawei said the deal could mean that its business secrets would end up with Nokia Siemens, a competitor, because Motorola resold Huawei equipment starting in 2000.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.004 to close at NT$28.930 on turnover of US$557 million.
For the week, the NT dollar rose 0.4 percent against the greenback.
“The appreciating trend will likely continue next week, and the currency may test the NT$28.70 level,” said Henry Lin, a currency trader at Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行).
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”