TAIEX falls under 7,500
The TAIEX fell below the 7,500 points yesterday, dragged down by anemic volume and a sport lottery scandal that has embroiled Fubon Financial and had a knock-on effect on the financial sector as a whole.
The main bourse closed down 96.52 points, or 1.27 percent, to finish at 7,480.88 on turnover of NT$81.32 billion. A total of 1,153 stocks closed up, 2,712 were down and 402 remained unchanged.
The financial sector saw the biggest decline of the eight major categories on the TAIEX, falling 2.71 percent.
A scandal involving a Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) subsidiary that runs the concession for the sport lottery dragged down the entire financial sector, dealers said.
Fubon Financial fell by as much as 6 percent during trading to a low of NT$35 before ending the day down 5.5 percent at NT$35.25.
TGIC expands China units
Taiwan Glass Industrial Corp (TGIC, 台灣玻璃), the nation’s largest glass maker, plans to increase its investment in three units in China by a total of US$38 million, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
In June, the firm announced plans to sell as much as US$300 million in overseas convertible bonds to help fund raw materials purchases and investment abroad.
BOT yuan business approved
Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行), the nation’s biggest state-run bank, said yesterday that its offshore banking units have received approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission to conduct yuan business, including taking deposits, making loans and remittances, according to a statement issued on the lender’s Web site.
ASE to announce China plans
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s top chip-packaging and testing firm, will announce plans to invest 8 billion yuan in a test and assembly project in Shanghai, China, Business News reported yesterday, citing an unidentified company official.
The project would be the biggest investment the Taiwanese company has made in China, the report said.
ASE chairman Jason Chang (張虔生) will make the announcement at an event to be held at the Jinqiao Export Processing Zone in Shanghai tomorrow, it added.
Ninth brand awards to be held
Industrial heavyweights are scheduled to attend an awards ceremony on Wednesday to cheer for Taiwan’s 20 best international brands, the organizer said yesterday.
The ceremony will be attended by top executives such as HTC Corp (宏達電) chief executive Peter Chou (周永明), Gourmet Master Co (美食達人) founder Wu Cheng-hsueh (吳政學), Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) chief brand officer Cheng Ping (鄭平) and KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) chairman Mark Wei (魏寶生), the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said in an e-mailed invitation.
Now entering its ninth year, this is the first time catering and financial companies have been listed among the finalists, TAITRA said.
Last year, Acer Inc (宏碁), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and HTC were honored as Taiwan’s top three international brands.
NT dollar falls back
The New Taiwan dollar fell to a seven-month low yesterday after European officials failed to reach agreement on a plan to settle the region’s debt crisis, prompting foreign funds to favor safer assets than emerging-market stocks.
The NT dollar weakened 0.7 percent to NT$29.78 against the US dollar at the close of business, according to Taipei Forex Inc. That was the lowest level since Feb. 25.
“The crisis around Greece is affecting foreign investors,” said Tarsicio Tong (湯健揚), a Taipei-based currency trader at Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行). “They are redeeming their overseas investments, especially in Asia, as they have to keep cash on hand and expect economic growth to slow down.”
Foreign funds sold US$152 million more Taiwanese shares than they bought yesterday, bringing this year’s net sales to US$9.2 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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