TAIEX closes little changed
The TAIEX closed little changed after a narrow range of fluctuation yesterday as the market encountered strong technical pressure ahead of the 7,200 point mark, dealers said.
Sentiment remained cautious amid uncertainty over the domestic political climate before tomorrow’s presidential election, while bond auctions planned by Spain and Italy also prevented many investors from buying stocks, the dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 1.63 points, or 0.02 percent, at 7,186.58, after moving between 7,173.87 and 7,209.74, on turnover of NT$78.43 billion (US$2.62 billion).
CIOs favor tablets: survey
As many as 90 percent of Taiwanese chief information officers (CIOs) said they believed a company’s productivity and competitiveness would rise if employees are using tablets as an alternative electronics tool, according to a survey released yesterday by International Data Corp.
Among those using tablets for work, immediate access to e-mail, business-related Web browsing and running business applications are the top three purposes, said the survey, which polled 302 CIOs in August last year.
The healthcare, services and retail industries were the top three sectors favoring the use of tablets, the company said. It projected that global market size of tablets would enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 50 percent from last year to 2015, with total shipments hitting 135 million units in 2015.
Wistron issues convertible bond
Wistron Corp (緯創) is marketing a convertible bond that will raise as much as US$300 million, according to a person familiar with the details.
The zero-coupon three-year note will convert into shares listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange at NT$49.3 to NT$51.4, said the person. The bond offers a conversion premium of 20 percent to 25 percent more than the company’s average closing price on the five days before pricing, the person said.
Peach to start flights to Taiwan
Peach Aviation Ltd, the low-cost carrier affiliate of All Nippon Airways Co, will begin flights to Taiwan and Hong Kong from Osaka, Japan, this summer, the carrier said in a statement yesterday
Gamania posts 22% sales rise
Online game publisher Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子) posted consolidated sales of NT$653.48 million for last month, a 22.02 percent increase over November and a rise of 13.63 percent year-on-year.
Consolidated sales for the whole of last year hit a record high for the fourth consecutive year at NT$7.05 billion, marking a growth of 20.42 percent, according to a company statement released on Tuesday.
Gamania said it plans to launch three to five games in Taiwan this year to expand its user base.
FSC okays Waterland’s request
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday agreed that Waterland Financial Holdings Co (國票金控) could inject NT$400 million in capital into its venture capital unit to set up a capital leasing company in Jiangsu Province, China. The commission also approved Taichung Commercial Bank’s (台中商銀) application to open a branch in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the GRETAI Securities Market plans to invite more companies to list this year, chairman Gordon Chen (陳樹) said yesterday. Last year, 52 firms applied to trade shares or issue Taiwan depositary receipts on the bourse.
NT dollar dips
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US currency yesterday, down NT$0.003 to close at NT$30.002. Turnover totaled US$898 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