TAIEX extends momentum
Taiwan’s stock market extended its momentum yesterday from a day earlier on buying by foreign investors, who appeared more willing to take on risk in global equity markets as their concerns over eurozone debt eased, dealers said.
However, the gains were capped by strong technical resistance at about the 7,200-point mark, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 9.34 points, or 0.13 percent, at 7,188.21, after fluctuating between 7,184.38 and 7,212.36, on turnover of NT$88.16 billion (US$2.94 billion).
Investment ranked third
Taiwan’s investment environment ranked third among 50 countries in the world as of last month, according to the US rating company Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI).
BERI said Taiwan’s political risk ranked sixth, one notch ahead of the previous rating, indicating that in spite of the heated election campaign, its political risk is seen as heading along a “stable” track.
The report said Taiwan’s operations risk ranked second, the same as in a report released in September, behind only Singapore.
According to BERI analysts, Taiwan’s good ranking could be attributed to anticipated strong expansion in infrastructure investment in the coming two years and more incentives to speed up investment in that area.
An announcement by the Taiwanese authorities that from Jan. 1, Chinese banks are permitted to buy Taiwanese banking and financial holding stakes was a plus for Taiwan’s business environment, BERI said.
In terms of foreign exchange risk, Taiwan was ranked third after Singapore and Switzerland.
Acer posts sales decline
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest personal computer vendor, said on Tuesday it posted a 7.61 percent decline in unconsolidated sales for last month from November, reflecting of weakening global demand.
Acer said its unconsolidated sales for the month totaled NT$33.03 billion. The figure was down 5.03 percent from a year earlier.
Last year’s unconsolidated sales fell 22.29 percent from 2010 to NT$405.71 billion, the company said.
Kuozui output sets record
Kuozui Motors Ltd (國瑞汽車), Taiwan’s manufacturer for Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp, produced more than 150,000 units last year, marking a new milestone in Taiwan’s auto industry, according to Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) on Tuesday.
Hotai Motor, the Taiwanese sales agent for Toyota, said that Kuozui faced a shortage of materials last year because of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March and severe flooding in Thailand.
Kuozui’s car manufacturing output reached 156,917 units last year, worth more than NT$85 billion in total, Hotai said.
Out of the total output, 50,636 units were sold to the Middle East, a record high in Taiwan’s car export market and up from 30,000 units in 2010.
NT dollar hits two-month high
The New Taiwan dollar rose to its strongest level in more than two months after global funds boosted their holdings of Taiwanese shares.
The NT dollar advanced for a seventh day after overseas investors bought US$402 million more equities than they sold in the past three days, according to exchange data.
The local unit strengthened 0.2 percent to NT$29.999 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. Earlier, it reached NT$29.904, the strongest level since Nov. 1.
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