Shares gain ground
The TAIEX closed up 93.56 points, or 1.1 percent, to 8,574.91 points yesterday.
The index opened at 8,503.41 points and then fluctuated between 8,579.8 and 8,462.05 on turnover of NT$114.76 billion (US$3.97 billion).
All eight stock categories recorded gains, with the construction sector enjoying the largest rise of 2.3 percent, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange data.
Bonds attract fewer bids
The government attracted fewer bids for the sale of NT$30 billion in five-year bonds than a previous auction, as it moved to absorb excess liquidity and rein in inflation.
The securities maturing in July 2016 were sold at a yield of 1.18 percent at the auction yesterday and drew bids for 1.85 times the amount on offer, the central bank said.
The government last sold five-year bonds in April at a yield of 1.075 percent. That offer garnered a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.87 times.
Banks were the biggest buyers at the auction, accounting for 41.7 percent of the bonds offered, while securities firms accounted for 36.7 percent.
MStar shrugs off patent suit
MStar Semiconductor Inc (Cayman) (開曼晨星半導體), the world’s biggest manufacturer of chips used in flat-panel TVs, said yesterday that the latest patent complaint filed by TV maker Vizio Inc would not significantly impact its operations, citing the minimal proportion of its chip involved in the lawsuit.
MStar said the problematic chips only accounted for 0.5 percent of its annual revenues.
MStar and Japan’s Renesas Electronics were the latest among the companies charged by Vizio in a patent-infringement complaint originally filed on June 16, according to a statement posted on the US International Trade Commission’s Web site.
The commission said it had voted to launch an investigation into the case.
Shih to discuss pact in Manila
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) would likely talk to his Philippine counterpart about an economic partnership agreement between the two countries during his trip to the Southeast Asian nation yesterday, ministry officials said.
Following last year’s signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, the ministry is seeking opportunities to sign free-trade agreements or economic cooperation agreements with other countries.
Apart from an economic cooperation agreement being negotiated with Singapore, similar pacts with the Philippines and India are undergoing feasibility assessment, the ministry said.
Hotel expects more PRC guests
W Hotels Taipei expects Chinese tourists to become its largest customer base after Taiwan launched the free individual travelers (FIT) scheme for Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen residents on June 28.
The boutique hotel’s top three customers are from the US, Hong Kong and China, in that order, general manager Cary Gray said, but with more Chinese warming to the FIT scheme and with Taiwan likely to open up the scheme to more Chinese cities in the future, Chinese visitors would top the list, he said.
The hotel, which opened in March in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), is expecting a 70 percent occupancy rate in the third quarter.
NT dollar trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar fell against its US counterpart yesterday, shedding NT$0.058 to close at NT$28.897.
Turnover totaled US$750 million, up from US$717 million the previous day.
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