TAIEX edges up
The TAIEX closed slightly higher yesterday after moving in a narrow range on reduced turnover, as sentiment was affected by lingering concerns over the global economy, dealers said.
Buying in financial and old economy stocks helped hold up the broader market, but large cap high-tech stocks came under pressure, triggered by disappointment over phone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co’s (大立光) cautious outlook for the fourth quarter, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 10.19 points, or 0.14 percent, at 7,254.51, after moving between 7,205.21 and 7,272.51, on turnover of NT$65.34 billion (US$2.16 billion).
CEPD plans forums on workers
The government plans to hold several large industry conferences starting next month to discuss possible relaxation of rules on the employment of foreign workers, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) said yesterday.
“The conferences would help us integrate more opinions from different industries,” Liu said at a press briefing.
The council is also considering holding a series of debate competitions for college students before the end of the year to learn more about what young people thought about the issue, Liu said.
HTC mulls low-priced phones
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone maker, may introduce smartphones priced below US$100 in line with its aim of increasing its global market share, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing company chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅).
Wang made the remarks during a discussion with Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg at the All Things Digital conference in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Wang also talked about some of the devices HTC is creating today, as well as the Taiwanese company’s partnership with Google Inc’s Android platform and her belief in the stylus.
Taipei Fubon office approved
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to set up a representative office in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, parent Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Food expo opens in Taichung
The Taiwan Culinary Exhibition opened yesterday in Greater Taichung, featuring gourmet food from Chinese cities and chef classrooms.
The fair, which is being held outside Taipei for the first time, runs at the Taichung World Trade Center, with chefs from five major cities serving dishes at the opening ceremony.
Many well-known restaurants and hotels are offering coupons for discounts of up to 51 percent.
Limited servings of dishes made from locally grown products will also be available during the exhibition, which runs through Monday.
The event draws more than 100,000 visitors each year, according to the Chinese Gourmet Association.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday lost ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.03 to close at NT$30.299, as the greenback extended its momentum against most of the currencies in Asia, dealers said.
The central bank was believed to have intervened in late trade to boost the value of the NT dollar in a bid to prevent volatile fluctuations of the currency amid the global financial turmoil, they said.
Turnover was US$899 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six