TAIEX up on Wall Street rally
The TAIEX came off an early high yesterday as selling emerged after the index briefly breached the technical resistance level of around 7,100 points following a rally on Wall Street overnight, dealers said.
Turnover remained thin, with many investors staying on the sidelines amid lingering concerns over a possible capital gains tax on stock investments, dealers said. Worries over the upcoming elections in Greece also prevented investors from entering the trading floor, they added.
The weighted index closed up 24.16 points, or 0.34 percent, at 7,080.31, after moving between 7,052.36 and 7,139.16. Turnover totaled NT$64.97 billion (US$2.17 billion) during the session.
China cuts base lending rate
China has cut its benchmark lending rate for the first time in nearly four years as it tries to reverse a sharp economic slowdown.
The Chinese central bank said yesterday the interest rate on a one-year loan would be reduced by 0.25 percentage points to 6.31 percent effective today, while the one-year deposit rate would fall by the same amount, according to a statement.
The rate cut adds to a string of measures in recent weeks to boost slowing economic growth.
Beijing has promised extra spending on public works and has approved a multibillion US dollar series of corporate investments to pump money into the economy.
Investment to hit US$39.5bn
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International predicted on Wednesday that the capital spending of wafer foundries will reach US$39.5 billion this year, up 2 percent from last year.
Moreover, spending by foundries should rise to a record high of US$46.3 billion next year, the US-based trade organization said in a report.
Wafer companies in South Korea will spend the most at US$11 billion this year, while Taiwan will spend up to US$8.5 billion, followed by US$8.3 billion to be spent by companies in the US, according to the report.
This year, construction work on 11 wafer plants will begin and a total of 45 projects will be launched, the association said.
In addition, the group said it expected seven plants and 24 new projects to be carried out next year, with the industry in South Korea remaining the world’s major investor with capital spending rising to US$12.5 billion. The US will become the second-largest investor with spending reaching US$11.5 billion, while Taiwan is due to invest around US$8 billion next year.
First Steamship to raise stake
First Steamship Co (益航), a local bulk carrier, said yesterday in a statement it planned to increase its stakeholding in Grand Ocean Retail Group (大洋百貨) from its current 47.06 percent.
The company said it would spend NT$600 million (US$20million) to purchase shares in Grand Ocean, a department store chain operator in China, on the open market.
Grand Ocean started trading on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday, but saw its share price fall below the initial listing price of NT$120 to end at NT$119.50, amid concerns over a slowdown in the Chinese economy.
NT dollar follows region up
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, edging up NT$0.029 to close at NT$29.906 as the local currency continued to gain momentum in line with its regional counterparts on hopes that the US Federal Reserve will further loosen liquidity to boost the US economy, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$732 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