TAIEX hits six-month high
The TAIEX closed above the 7,800-points mark for the first time in nearly six months on ample liquidity and institutional buying, dealers said.
With concerns over the eurozone’s debt problems easing to some extent, buying rotated to large cap electronics stocks, in particular to companies in the Apple supply chain, after shares of the US consumer electronics giant hit a record high overnight, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 162.47 points, or 2.11 percent, at the day’s high of 7,869.91, off an early low of 7,766.38, on turnover of NT$160.32 billion (US$5.43 billion).
Fubon is back in black
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s second-largest financial services provider, yesterday posted NT$2.2 billion (US$74.6 million) in net profit last month, reversing a net loss of NT$1.69 billion in December, according to a stock exchange filing.
The latest figures translated into NT$0.24 earnings per share and marked a retreat of 23.4 percent from the same period last year due to weaker earnings at its insurance and securities arms, company data showed.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) reported NT$250 million in net income last month, down from NT$652 million a year earlier, while net profit at Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) fell from NT$330 million to NT$80 million.
Ministry adjusts power prices
The government has increased preferential power prices for biomass projects by as much as 24 percent and cut rates paid for wind and solar facilities.
Wholesale prices for biomass electricity sold to state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電) rose to as much as NT$2.70 a kilowatt-hour, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday. Prices for wind farms with a capacity of more than 10 kilowatts fell by NT$0.02 a kilowatt-hour to NT$2.6 a kilowatt-hour.
The government also cut solar wholesale rates for contracts this year by as much as 8.3 percent, to NT$9.46 a kilowatt-hour, for projects installed on rooftops and completed by June and NT$6.9 a kilowatt-hour for ground plants. After June, the rates will fall by as much as 10.3 percent from last year.
Taipei to host big panel show
The world’s largest flat panel display exhibition will be held in Taipei in late June, the organizers said yesterday.
Display Taiwan, now in its 14th year, will focus on touch panel technology and active-matrix organic LED, a display technology for use in mobile devices and televisions, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said.
The three-day event from June 19 to June 21 is expected to attract 240 exhibitors and 45,000 visitors from 80 countries, TAITRA said.
Senao plans 1,000 outlets
Senao International Co (神腦國際), a distributor of mobile phones, related accessories and communications devices, hopes to expand the number of its retail outlets in China to 1,000 within three years.
Senao chairman Paul Lin (林保雍) said the company planned to open at least 200 new shops in China this year, with Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai the main targets.
The company also expects to add more than 60 new digital shops in Taiwan this year, which will require an additional 1,000 staff, Lin said. Senao currently has a workforce of 2,500 in Taiwan.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, rising NT$0.04 to close at NT$29.530.
Turnover totaled US$852 million during the trading session.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”