TAIEX closes down
Share prices pulled back yesterday in thin trade as foreign institutional investors remained off the trading floor ahead of the New Year holiday, dealers said.
While the market encountered strong resistance ahead of 7,100 points after a recent technical rebound, the NT$500 billion (US$16.5 billion) National Stabilization Fund was believed to have been used to buy stocks during the session in a bid to maintain the index above the 7,000 point mark, the dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 28.36 points, or 0.40 percent, at 7,056.67, after moving between 7,036.92 and 7,093.47, on turnover of NT$56.11 billion.
Cathay Life to buy Taishin stake
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) said on Tuesday its life insurance unit had agreed to buy a 3.45 percent stake in Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) from private-equity fund TPG Newbridge Capital for NT$4.74 billion, a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the nation’s largest insurance company by market share, would purchase 258.98 million Taishin convertible preferred shares from TPG Newbridge at NT$18.30 each, which was about 74 percent more than Taishin Financial’s closing price of NT$10.5 on Tuesday.
The deal is expected to be closed by the end of February, the filing said.
Including the share sales to Cathay Life, TPG Newbridge has sold shares in Taishin Financial worth NT$11.36 billion to various investors, cutting its stake in Taishin to 6.55 percent from 14.82 percent, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, citing Taishin sources.
Delta, Hsinchu going ‘green’
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday with the Hsinchu County Government to collaborate on building an international “green” energy industrial park with a budget of NT$10 billion.
Delta said it plans to create new business opportunities for the industry by integrating several energy-saving solutions such as electric vehicles, sustainable buildings, LED lighting and solar energy in the park.
The project has been divided into two installments, with construction of the first part scheduled to begin in August at a cost of NT$5.3 billion.
Shui-Mu plans expansion
Shui-Mu International Co (阿瘦實業), the company which makes the popular “A.S.O.” and “BESO” shoes, said it intends to open more than 40 stores in both Taiwan and China next year, marking its highest expansion move in a year.
According to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday, Shui-Mu president Joseph Lo (羅榮岳) said he wanted to launch about 30 to 40 stores in Taiwan and about 10 in China next year, boosting the total number of stores in both markets to 310.
The company plans to enhance its presence in China by opening a total of 50 outlets within the next three years, from the current five shops, he said.
The shoemaker aims to grow revenues by 10 percent next year to NT$4 billion, Lo said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, adding NT$0.002 to close at NT$30.310 amid thin trading and cautious sentiment ahead of a planned bond auction in Italy, dealers said.
Buying by foreign institutional investors in the local bourse lifted demand for the local currency during the trading session, paving the way for the NT dollar to rise against the greenback, they said.
Turnover totaled US$485 million during the trading session.
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