TAIEX rallies across board
Led by flat-panel stocks, the stock market rebounded 1.68 percent yesterday, with the benchmark index closing above 6,800 points.
The TAIEX rallied 114.26 points to end the day at 6,898.78 points after moving between 6,920.79 and 6,844.30 points on turnover of NT$74.82 billion (US$2.46 billion).
A total of 2,223 stocks closed up, 1,269 were down and 426 were unchanged.
T bills yield 0.85 percent
The government yesterday auctioned NT$20 billion of 273-day Treasury bills at an average rate of 0.85 percent, the central bank said in a teleconference.
The sale attracted bids for 2.65 times the amount on offer, the bank said.
King Yuan approves capital cut
King Yuan Electronics Co’s (京元電) board approved plans to cancel 50 million shares, reducing its capital by 3.92 percent, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The paid-in capital after the reduction is NT$12.2 billion, it said.
King Yuan also announced that Mike Liang (梁明成) had resigned as president to pursue other career goals.
The company’s chairman, Lee Chin-kung (李金恭), would serve as acting president during the transition period, King Yuan said in a separate stock exchange statement.
Solar Applied canceling bonds
Solar Applied Materials Technology Co (光洋應用材料科技) has repurchased and will cancel US$14.3 million of unsecured overseas convertible bonds, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Nan Kang to buy back shares
Nan Kang Rubber Tire Co’s (南港輪胎) board approved a plan to buy back 11 million shares, or 1.53 percent of outstanding shares, at between NT$42 and NT$48 each from today till Jan. 27, the company said yesterday in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Farglory seeks bond extension
Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) has applied to the regulator to extend the deadline for its planned convertible bond sale by three months because of volatility in global capital markets, the company said in a stock exchange statement yesterday.
The company earlier received approval to sell NT$2.2 billion in five-year unsecured convertible bonds and NT$800 million in three-year secured convertible bonds.
Hua Nan approves China deal
The board of Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the banking arm of Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控), yesterday approved plans to sign a cooperation agreement with a Chinese peer, China Guangfa Bank (CG, 廣發銀), the local lender said in a stock exchange filing.
The two lenders plan to join forces in expanding business as allowed by bilateral regulators, the filing said.
China stock exchange planned
China Development Financial Holdings Co (中華開發金控) said in a statement yesterday that the venture capital unit under its banking arm, China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發銀行), plans to jointly set up a stock exchange company in China.
The investment of about NT$60 million (US$1.97 million), will buy the venture capital firm a 25 percent stake in the upcoming stock exchange for unlisted Chinese firms, the statement said.
The investment plan still needs approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission, it said.
NT dollar posts small gain
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US currency yesterday, adding NT$0.008 to close at NT$30.452. Turnover totaled US$701 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],”
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