TAIEX rebounds, rises 0.85%
The TAIEX staged a technical rebound yesterday from the sell-off in the previous session, with government-led funds believed to have led bargain hunting in a bid to shore up market confidence amid lingering concerns over the debt problems in the eurozone, dealers said.
Bargain hunting focused on the financial and old economy sectors, while the bellwether high-tech sector remained haunted by worries over weakening global demand, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 57.96 points, or 0.85 percent, at 6,864.39, after moving between 6,744.26 and 6,885.24, on turnover of NT$84.77 billion (US$2.78 billion).
E Ink to end LG partnership
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday said it would end a two-year partnership with South Korean rival LG Display Co Ltd, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In December of 2009, LG Display signed an agreement with E Ink, E Ink’s South Korean display unit, Hydis Technologies Co Ltd and a venture capital fund formed by E Ink’s parent, Yuen Foong Yu Group (永豐餘集團), to collaborate on developing e-paper display technology in flat panel supply and cross-licensing patents.
After the collaboration terminated, Hydis would redeem corporate bonds worth 34.26 billion won (US$29.77 million) held by LG Display before the bonds due time, the filing said.
EVA obtains AEO certification
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-biggest airline, said yesterday it had obtained certification under the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) system from the Ministry of Finance’s Directorate-General of Customs.
The carrier said it was the first airline in Taiwan to get the AEO certification after the government in 2009 applied the supply chain security standards of the World Customs Organization (WCO) to speed up the movements of goods in the global market.
Taiwan is in talks with several countries, including the US, South Korea, Singapore and Israel, to sign mutual recognition agreements on the AEO certification.
So far, 63 Taiwanese companies have obtained AEO certification, according to the Directorate General of Customs.
Asus Cloud predicts growth
A subsidiary of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s fifth-largest PC brand, expressed optimism on Wednesday over the future growth of the cloud business, given the shift from public to private service.
“We are optimistic about the potential of the private-sector cloud business and we expect that more small and medium companies will adopt our solution in the second half of next year,” Asus Cloud Corp (華碩雲端) chief executive Peter Wu (吳漢章) said.
The company is targeting customers such as Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and National Taiwan University.
Private cloud service means Asustek helps customers access their data stored in servers located within their buildings, while the public cloud service allows the access of data from offsite servers.
Wu predicted that the company would generate between US$3 million and US$4 million from its public cloud and private cloud services this year. About 85 percent of the revenue would come from public cloud services and the rest from private cloud business, he added.
NT dollar down slightly
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.047 to close at NT$30.442, as foreign investors kept moving funds out of the country amid global financial turmoil, dealers said. Turnover totaled US$615 million.
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