TAIEX rebounds on tax plans
The TAIEX yesterday staged a technical rebound to return to the 7,000-point level after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers revised their proposal on taxing capital gains on securities investments to make it more favorable to market movers, dealers said.
In the latest revision of a plan that observers feel is the most likely to make it through the legislature, major shareholders of listed companies and high-income earners will no longer be targeted by the plan, they said.
Despite the rebound, turnover stayed thin as market sentiment remained haunted by lingering concerns over debt problems in the eurozone, which has dragged down the global economy, they added.
The weighted index closed up 105.79 points, or 1.53 percent, at 7,000.45, after moving between 6,967.31 and 7,037.57, on turnover of NT$62.50 billion (US$2.08 billion).
At the end of the session, food shares scored the highest gains of the eight major sectors of the market, finishing up 2.62 percent.
Market-raised capital up 30%
The amount of capital raised on the nation’s main stock exchange in the first five months rose 30 percent to NT$29.25 billion from a year earlier, but the figure for last month fell month-on-month for the third straight month, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp said yesterday.
Funds raised in last month totaled only NT$1.1 billion, compared with NT$2.5 billion a month earlier, the third consecutive month in which the figure declined.
The figures do not include the value of private placements, overseas depositary receipts, overseas corporate bonds and employee stock options.
Forex reserves drop
Foreign exchange reserves totaled US$389.28 billion as of the end of last month, down US$5.8 billion from a month earlier, the central bank said yesterday.
“The net outflow of foreign capital was the main factor leading the decline of foreign exchanges reserves last month,” Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源), director-general of the bank’s foreign exchange department, told a press briefing.
Net outflow of foreign capital totaled US$3.3 billion last month, marking the highest level for eight months, central banks said.
Meanwhile, the euro and other major currencies depreciated against the greenback, further making foreign exchange reserves denominate in these currencies worth less in terms of the base currency, the US dollar, Lin said.
The data showed Taiwan continues to have the world’s fourth-largest foreign exchange reserves, just behind China, Japan and Russia.
S&P maintains FPG ratings
Standard & Poor’s yesterday said its credit ratings on the four core companies of the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) were not affected by weak market conditions in the second quarter, but maintained its “negative” outlook on their “BBB+” ratings.
S&P’s comment came after Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) on Monday reported they posted a combined revenue of NT$119.66 billion last month, down 16.1 percent month-on-month, because they suffered significant inventory losses due to rapidly falling crude oil and product prices.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.05 to close at NT$30.000 after the local bourse staged a technical rebound, boosting demand for the local currency, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$662 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