Costly year for investors
The TAIEX dropped 1,911.66 points, or 20.9 percent, in the year of the Rabbit, while overall market capitalization reduced to NT$19.66 trillion from NT$24.23 trillion in 2010, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
If calculated on a per-head basis of the nearly 8.9 million investors, each saw his or her wealth shrink by almost NT$500,000.
Investors were happier during 2009 and 2010, when share prices rose by 75 percent and 20 percent respectively, the exchange’s data showed.
The exchange will resume trading on Jan. 30 after the Lunar New Year holidays.
NT dollar up on holiday demand
The New Taiwan dollar rose against its US counterpart yesterday, adding NT$0.037 to close at NT$29.941, as demand for the local currency was boosted by the need for funds ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, dealers said.
Sentiment toward the financial situation in Europe improved in the wake of a plan by the IMF to boost its bailout fund to contain the eurozone debt crisis, they said.
Turnover totaled US$662 million during the trading session.
Laundering rules tightened
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday announced plans to include insurance brokers and agents under financial institutions that are obligated to comply with rules to prevent money laundering.
The commission said the use of a broader definition falls in line with international practices, as recommended by the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering, and that it would help strengthen the nation’s crime prevention network.
Students eyeing part-time jobs
More than 90 percent of college students plan to find part-time jobs during the winter vacation, a poll released by 1111 Job Bank showed yesterday.
The online job bank said 91.6 percent of the 1,128 college students it surveyed were seeking part-time work.
The restaurant business is the favorite among college students, according to the poll, which showed that 34.39 percent of them are looking for part-time jobs in that sector. About 30 percent said they were seeking work in hypermarkets, such as Carrefour, while 29.1 percent said they were eyeing jobs in cram schools.
The survey, conducted between Dec. 29 and Jan. 10, had a 2.9 percentage points margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.
IT firms bearish on economy
Computer and information industry suppliers have a bearish outlook on the nation’s economy for the first three months because of the global economic slowdown, according to a survey released yesterday.
The survey, conducted by the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會), found that 22 percent of respondents were optimistic about the January-to-March period, while 55 percent were pessimistic and 23 percent had no opinion.
The business climate index, which is compiled by the TCA, fell 0.12 points to 1.26 in the first quarter from 1.38 in the previous quarter, marking a record low since the survey was first conducted in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The survey, conducted between Dec. 13 and Dec. 28, questioned 1,140 local suppliers planning to attend this year’s Computex Taipei in June, with 367 valid responses.
China Steel to build India plant
A subsidiary of China Steel Corp (中鋼) announced on Wednesday that it is to spend US$178 million to set up a plant in Gujarat, India.
In the deal, the company agreed to allocate 58 hectares of land for the plant.
China Steel Corp India Pvt Ltd estimated that construction of the plant would start in June and that trial operations would begin in the first half of 2014.
When the plant is operational, it would produce an estimated 200,000 tonnes of electrical steel sheets annually, the company said.
Moodys maintains its ratings
Moody’s Investors Service yesterday kept its “Aa3” long-term issuer (domestic and foreign currency) rating and its “Aa3” senior unsecured (domestic currency) rating on Taiwan, citing the nation’s high economic resiliency and strong financial robustness.
The outlook on Taiwan’s credit profile remained stable, it said.
However, cross-strait political tensions, although improved following widening trade ties, would remain a constrain on Taiwan’s credit fundamentals in the near future, Moody’s said in a statement.
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