TAIEX passes 7,100 points
Share prices soared in expanded trade yesterday, with the TAIEX powering past the 7,100 point mark.
Financial stocks posted strong gains for the third consecutive trading session after the Financial Supervisory Commission announced that life insurance companies would be allowed to use part of their reserves to write down up to 50 percent of their foreign exchange losses, dealers said.
Led by the financial sector, interest spread across the board as many investors resumed buying, taking advantage of low valuations in both old-economy and high-tech sectors, which had been hard hit by European debt concerns recently, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 144.38 points, or 2.07 percent, at 7,110.73. Turnover totaled NT$92.84 billion (US$3.07 billion) during the session.
AUO appoints new president
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panelmaker, yesterday promoted vice president Paul Peng (彭雙浪) to the position of president, ahead of Chen Lai-juh (陳來助).
Chen, AUO vice chairman Chen Hsuan-bin (陳炫彬) and vice president Hui Hsiung (熊暉) have been barred from leaving the US by a US district in California after appearing in a price-fixing trial in July of last year.
Chen Lai-juh was appointed president of the firm’s solar business group, AUO said, after its board approved the shake-up yesterday. The new appointments will take effect on Jan. 1.
CAL approves funding plan
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), Taiwan’s largest air carrier, said yesterday that its board had approved a plan to raise NT$6.67 billion (US$220.16 million) in funding through the issuance of 56.84 million common shares.
The proceeds will be used to purchase new Airbus A350 aircraft and repay bank loans to improve the firm’s liability ratio, the company said.
The offering price was NT$11.73 per share, while the base date for effecting stock options was Jan. 15, CAL stock exchange filing data showed.
Fubon gets Da Nang approval
Fubon Insurance Vietnam Co received Hanoi’s approval for the establishment of a branch in Da Nang, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s No. 2 financial service provider, said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Eslite to open HK store
Eslite Corp (誠品), which operates the Eslite bookstore chain in Taiwan, said yesterday that it planned to open its first overseas outlet in Hong Kong in the second half of next year.
Eslite said the new 4,000m2 store would be located in Causeway Bay, one of Hong Kong’s most popular shopping areas.
The company said that with ties in the greater China region growing closer, it was an opportune time for Eslite to establish a presence in Hong Kong.
NT dollar up against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, up NT$0.029 to close at NT$30.296, with demand for the local currency boosted by a rally in the domestic stock market, dealers said.
Encouraged by better-than--expected US job data, traders appeared more willing to take risks and moved their funds to equity markets in Asia after Wall Street’s gains overnight, they said.
Turnover totaled US$586 million during the trading session. Dealers said investor sentiment over the US economy improved after first-time jobless benefit claims in Thursday’s US job data were lower than expected, prompting traders to leave the US dollar as a safe haven and flock to equity markets.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts