Shares edge slightly higher
The TAIEX edged up 0.08 percent yesterday with relatively low trading volume amid concerns over higher electricity rates, dealers said.
The benchmark index finished up 6.25 points to close at 7,662.92 on relatively low turnover of NT$74.19 billion (US$2.51 billion).
A total of 2,133 stocks closed up and 1,567 finished down, while 574 remained unchanged.
Hua Nan Investment Trust Corp (華南永昌投信) assistant manager Kuo Tse-yuan (郭澤原) said that while the broader market was undergoing correction, small and medium-sized stocks might perform better in the short term.
He forecast that the benchmark index would move within a narrow range of 7,500 to 7,800 if volume remains low.
SEC alleges stock manipulation
A complaint against a Chinese commercial vehicle dealer for alleged stock manipulation offers insights into the practices being uncovered as market regulators tighten scrutiny of China-based companies with US-traded shares.
AutoChina International Ltd (開元汽車), which is based in Shijiazhuang, China, rejected the accusations raised in a civil lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The commission alleges Auto-China and 11 investors linked to the company made hundreds of false trades, aiming to boost trading volume in the company’s shares to help improve its prospects for obtaining financing.
CPC to restart naphtha cracker
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) plans to restart its No. 5 naphtha cracker on Monday after shutting it down because of a fire last Friday, CPC industrial relations division deputy director Jessica Tang (唐苑莉) said by telephone yesterday. The damaged butadiene plant at the facility would remain shuttered, she said.
Chinese banks ramp up lending
Chinese banks ramped up their lending last month by issuing 1.01 trillion yuan (US$160 billion) in new loans, official data showed yesterday, offsetting a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
The total was higher than the 710.7 billion yuan in new loans in February.
Analysts had forecast new loans of 800 billion yuan for last month, according to a poll by Dow Jones Newswires.
New lending rose by 332 billion yuan last month from the same month last year, China’s central bank said in a statement.
Separately, China’s foreign exchange reserves — the world’s largest — stood at US$3.31 trillion at the end of last month, the central bank said, up from US$3.18 trillion at the end of last year.
Teco unveils electric motors
Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機) said on Wednesday it plans to initially produce 100,000 new electric motors for about US$1,000 each, aiming to start mass production within the next three months.
Teco chairman Liu Chao-kai (劉兆凱) made the remarks when the company unveiled a series of new electric motors at this year’s Electronic Vehicle Show in Taipei, which runs through Sunday.
The company’s electric motors can be used in cars, buses, motorcycles and the motorized tricycles that are found across Southeast Asia, Liu said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the greenback yesterday, edging up NT$0.012 to close at NT$29.550.
Turnover totaled US$518 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],”
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