TAIEX up as eurozone calms
Taiwanese share prices steamed ahead yesterday on follow-through buying from the previous session as concerns over the debt problems in the eurozone were eased, dealers said.
The optimism was boosted by hopes that debt-ridden Greece will obtain bailout money after the passage of an austerity program by the Greek parliament demanded by its creditors, they said.
The weighted index closed up 87.23 points, or 1.0 percent, at 8,739.82, on turnover of NT$108.57 billion (US$3.77 billion).
Bad loans fall to 0.5%
The nation’s bad loan ratio dropped to a new low of 0.5 percent at the end of May, from 0.54 percent one month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement yesterday.
The coverage ratio rose to 187.36 percent in May, gaining 10.96 percent from 176.4 percent in April, the statement said, suggesting the 37 domestic lenders’ asset qualities strengthened further.
Total nonperforming loans amounted to NT$103.4 billion as of the end of May, falling NT$6.9 billion from one month earlier, the statement said.
Outstanding loans equaled NT$20.68 trillion, increasing NT$20.58 billion from the month-earlier level, it said.
Tax evaders named
The Ministry of Finance yesterday released a list of individuals and companies that did not pay taxes, with the top tax evaders basically remaining the same as last year.
The Holiday Inn Asiaworld Taipei (環亞飯店), which has changed hands to The Sunworld Dynasty Hotel (王朝大酒店), tops the list of corporations, with an outstanding tax bill of NT$2.085 billion, ministry data showed.
From the list of individuals, late business tycoon Huang Jen-chung (黃任中) and his son, Juang Juo-ku (黃若谷), owe the most, with unpaid taxes totaling NT$1.546 billion and NT$1.737 billion respectively, data showed.
Wintek profits up 5.82%
Local touch panel maker Wintek Corp (勝華) yesterday said in an e-mailed statement that its revenues rose 5.82 percent to NT$7.65 billion last month, from NT$7.23 billion in May, the company said in an e-mailed. Revenues soared about 65 percent year-on-year from NT$4.64 billion in June last year. In the period from April to last month, Wintek posted NT$21.76 billion in revenues, up nearly 2 percent from NT$21.35 billion in the first quarter.
Touch sensors and touch panels accounted for 80 percent of total revenues, while LCD panels made up the other 20 percent.
Gas prices stay the same
CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣中油) state-run oil refiner, will keep domestic prices of liquefied petroleum gas unchanged, and raise natural gas prices by NT$0.44 per cubic meter for this month, the company said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
EVA sells five-year bonds
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) sold NT$7.1 billion in five-year bonds at an interest rate of 1.44 percent, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The carrier will use the funds to repay debt and improve financial structure, a previous filing said.
NT dollar rises with euro
The New Taiwan dollar appreciated yesterday, gaining NT$0.022 to NT$28.780 against the greenback as traders took cues from a rising euro amid reduced concerns over the debt crisis in the eurozone, dealers said. They said the central bank jumped onto the trading floor to shore up the greenback after the NT dollar moved closer to NT$28.50, the level which the market believes is the bank’s bottom line.
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