TAIEX trips on eurozone crisis
Escalating fears over Greece’s possible exit from the eurozone triggered heavy selling in the local bourse yesterday, pushing the TAIEX below the 7,200-point mark at the end of the session, dealers said.
The benchmark index closed down 127.14 points, or 1.75 percent, at 7,147.75, after moving between 7,130.52 and 7,213.60, on turnover of NT$66.52 billion (US$2.25 billion).
The financial sector suffered the steepest losses among the eight largest sectors of the market, finishing down 2.13 percent.
Q1 earnings from China fall
Aggregate earnings by Taiwanese companies listed on the main bourse and the over-the-counter (OTC) market from their investments in China decreased to NT$20.8 billion in the first quarter of the year owing to rising labor costs and the European debt crisis, the Financial Supervision Commission said on Tuesday.
Profit dropped by NT$19.1 billion, or 47.87 percent, from the same quarter last year, the commission said in a report.
Statistics compiled by the commission showed that as of the end of March, there were 1,049 Taiwanese listed and OTC companies with China investments, accounting for 76.35 percent of all the listed and OTC companies in Taiwan.
In the first quarter, these companies channeled NT$20.3 billion into China to invest in their businesses, but remitted just NT$1.1 billion out of the NT$20.8 billion in profit from China back to Taiwan, the statistics showed.
As of the end of March, the Chinese investments of listed and OTC companies had accumulated to NT$1.33 trillion, according to the commission.
Nissan fined over airbags
Nissan Motor Corp’s Taiwanese sales arm has been fined NT$750,000 for failing to provide sufficient information about the six airbags that are standard in its Rogue model, the Fair Trade Commission said on Tuesday.
The commission, which conducted tests on the model, said that three out of the six airbags do not work under certain circumstances, which the company failed to mention in its advertisements, commission spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said.
In response, Nissan Taiwan said the design of airbags, which is included in the vehicle’s Supplemental Restraint System, is in compliance with the US’ Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Yuanta Singapore approved
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday approved plans by Yuanta Bank (元大銀行), a subsidiary of Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), to set up a branch in Singapore.
The move will allow the local lender to boost its presence on the international stage after it set up a representative office in Hong Kong, the commission said in a statement.
Currently eight Taiwanese banks have branches in the city-state, it added.
CPC to up exploration
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) decided to actively explore oil reserves in other countries to increase its own oil supply to 10 percent in 2016 from the current 4 percent, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday, after the third meeting of a task force created to review the performance of the nation’s state-run oil and power companies.
Shih said CPC was expected to achieve the goal of meeting 30 percent of its total needs with its own oil in 2021.
NT dollar edges down NT$0.04
The New Taiwan dollar fell NT$0.04 to close at the NT$29.586 on turnover of US$714 million.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six