TAIEX rebounds 2.39 percent
The TAIEX rebounded 2.39 percent yesterday, edging toward a two-week closing high. The rebound was fueled by a surge on Wall Street and in European markets on Friday amid signs that global markets are stabilizing.
The TAIEX rallied 182.37 points to close at 7,819.39, after moving between 7,775.82 and 7,748.46 on turnover of NT$92.438 billion (US$3.19 billion).
A total of 3,179 stocks closed up and 1,240 were down, with 423 remaining unchanged.
In the broader market, all sectors closed up, of which the foodstuffs sector scored the highest gains, finishing up 4 percent.
Office workers fond of gadgets
A total of 65.5 percent of the nation’s office workers have a smartphone or a tablet computer, according to the results of a recent online poll.
The 1111 Job Bank survey, conducted between July 26 and Aug. 8, found that smartphones are the most popular device owned by local office workers.
Other popular high-end products among office workers were tablet computers, such as Apple Inc’s iPad.
The survey also found that on average, every 1.08 office workers owns one of these devices.
Collecting 1,160 effective samples by e-mail, the survey had a confidence level of 95 percent and a sampling error of plus or minus 2.88 percentage points.
SMIC’s Simon Yang resigns
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), China’s biggest chipmaker, said the company’s chief operating officer Simon Yang (楊士寧) resigned, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.
Yang’s resignation will take effect on Sept. 5 and SMIC will arrange to appoint his replacement “as soon as practicable,” the -company said in a statement, without saying why he resigned.
On Aug. 5, SMIC appointed Chiu Tzu-yin (邱慈雲) as CEO and executive director of the company after David Wang (王寧國) resigned from the post last month.
SMIC last month also named Zhang Wenyi (張文義) its new chairman, after his predecessor Jiang Shangzhou (江上舟) died in June.
Firms team to tap China market
Hollywood studio Relativity Media said it is partnering with two companies to make Chinese films for global audiences and distribute movies in the fast growing Chinese market.
The partnership teams Relativity with private equity firm SAIF Partners and IDG China Media, an investment arm of Boston-based International Data Group.
Relativity will also distribute future films in China through a joint venture called SkyLand, in which the three companies are co-owners. SkyLand will also invest in local film and TV production.
Bright Food announces deal
China’s Bright Food Group (光明食品) said yesterday it had agreed to buy a 75 percent stake in Australia’s Manassen Foods, as it seeks to become a major global industry player.
Bright Food did not disclose how much it would pay for the controlling stake in Manassen Foods, but called the deal mutually beneficial.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Bright Food would buy about a 75 percent stake of Manassen Foods from Champ Private Equity, valuing the entire food firm at more than US$520 million.
NT dollar up against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.057 to close at NT$28.952.
Turnover totaled US$559 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