TAIEX drops 42.61 points
The TAIEX fell yesterday on lingering concerns over the eurozone’s debt problems and the failure of the US Congress to reach a deal in deficit reductions, dealers said.
Government-led funds were believed to have stepped in to shore up the local stocks, in particular large-cap firms such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), in a bid to support the broader market above the psychological 7,000 mark and maintain market confidence, they said.
A move by the Financial Supervisory Commission to curb the use of borrowed stocks has helped the market limit short selling by foreign institutional investors, they said.
The weighted index closed down 42.61 points to 7,000.03. Turnover amounted NT$89.67 billion (US$2.96 billion).
Cross-strait financial talks held
Financial regulators from Taiwan and China agreed to strength financial relations and seek cooperation on banking supervision, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement yesterday.
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) met China Banking Regulatory Commission boss Shang Fulin (尚福林) in Beijing yesterday. They agreed to speed up the review of applications from lenders seeking to set up offices or upgrade to branches in each other markets, the statement said.
Catcher’s Suzhou plant in limbo
Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), which makes metal casings for Apple Inc’s MacBook Air and HTC Corp’s (宏達電) smartphones, yesterday said it could not estimate when its Suzhou, China, facility would fully resume operations.
The remarks followed market speculation that the factory might not be able to resume operations by the end of this month, given that area residents still have concerns about environmental pollution the Chinese-language news agency Cnyes.com reported yesterday.
Catcher said it had finished implementing measures to improve the facility last month, but local authorities are still inspecting the site and have yet to give permission to restart it. Parts of the facility were shut after nearby residents complained it emitted a strange odor.
Taiwan Mobile to hire 200
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) plans to add 200 jobs next year as it expands its number of retail shops to 700, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing the firm’s president, Cliff Lai (賴弦五).
Taiwan Land to buy back shares
Taiwan Land Development Corp (台灣土地開發股份有限公司) plans to buy back 25 million common shares, or 4.03 percent of its outstanding stock, at between NT$11 and NT$13 each from today through Jan. 22, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar weakened to a one-month low after international investors reduced holdings of Taiwanese stocks on concern the global economy is slowing.
The NT dollar slipped 0.2 percent to NT$30.309 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
Global funds sold US$173 million more Taiwanese shares than they bought yesterday, taking net sales for the year to US$10 billion, exchange data show.
The local unit fell for a third day after the failure by the US congressional committee to agree on Monday on deficit-cutting measures added to market pessimism surrounding the European debt crisis.
“The NT dollar is extending its depreciating trend on a lack of positive prospects for the world economy,” said Henry Lin (林弘立), a Taipei-based foreign-exchange trader at Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行).
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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