TAIEX ends lower
The TAIEX closed lower yesterday as the bellwether electronics sector continued its downturn amid lingering concerns over global demand for the second half of this year, dealers said.
Investors moved some of their funds to old economy sectors keeping the broader market from falling further, they said.
The TAIEX fell 23.87 points to 8,749.55 on turnover of NT$131.59 billion (US$4.55 billion).
Central bank sells CDs
The central bank sold NT$100 billion of 364-day certificates of deposit (CD) at an average interest rate of 1.049 percent at an auction yesterday, it said in a statement.
The sale attracted bids for 2.76 times the amount on offer, the central bank said.
The bank last sold similar-maturity certificates on June 10 at an interest rate of 1.010 percent. That offer garnered a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.77 times.
Polaris eyes Chinese stocks
Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券), which owns the nation’s largest exchange--traded fund, aims to start selling funds linked to Chinese stocks by the end of the year.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission gave approval in March to Polaris to invest in yuan-denominated stocks and bonds under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program. The company has still to be given a quota by the Chinese regulator, said Chang Mei-yuan (張美媛), the manager of Polaris’s largest ETF Polaris Taiwan Top 50 Tracker.
“There’s a lot of demand for Chinese securities,” Chang said.
Polaris plans to boost its assets under management to NT$300 billion from NT$125 billion in three years, Chang said, without elaborating.
FSC okays yuan business
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has agreed to allow the offshore banking unit (OBU) to conduct Chinese yuan-based business and allow local banks to conduct overseas trade for yuan, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said in a statement on Thursday.
Under current rules, only Hong Kong units of Taiwanese banks can participate in yuan-based business, including retail lending and trade finance. The FSC will release the administrative interpretation with the central bank to make the new rules official, the council said.
Chinatrust posts June profits
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the nation’s third-largest by assets, yesterday posted NT$2.78 billion (US$96.5 million) net profit last month, rising 53.05 percent from a month earlier, the company said in a statement.
In the first six months, consolidated net income totaled NT$11.15 billion, translating into earnings of NT$1.07 per share, the statement said.
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀), the flagship unit of Chinatrust Financial, had a bad loan ratio of 0.51 percent and the coverage ratio at 212.79 percent, it said.
FSC fines Standard Chartered
The FSC on Thursday fined Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan (渣打銀行) NT$2 million for internal control negligence.
The negligence allowed a staffer to access customer accounts without following proper procedures for more than two years, resulting in NT$1.24 million worth of financial disputes, the commission said. The FSC also asked the UK-based lender to discharge the staffer.
NT dollar edges higher
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US currency yesterday adding NT$0.065 to close at NT$28.795 in reflection of the strength of most Asian currencies in the region, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$739 million 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
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