Eurozone debt caps TAIEX gains
Gains on the nation’s main bourse were capped yesterday ahead of the nearest technical resistance around 7,100 points as lingering concerns over the debt crisis in the eurozone continued weighing on market sentiment, dealers said.
Select large-cap stocks, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) and Mega Financial Holdings Co (兆豐金控), attracted interest for bargains to fend off profit-taking pressure after the weighted index moved higher, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 16.75 points, or 0.24 percent, at 7,088.83, on turnover of NT$50.90 billion (US$1.70 billion).
Among the winning market heavyweights, TSMC rose 0.76 percent to close at NT$80.00, HTC gained 1.45 percent to end at NT$350.00, while Mega Financial Holdings closed up 2.12 percent at NT$21.65.
Solar energy shares move up
Local solar energy shares moved sharply higher yesterday morning after shares of US-based First Solar Inc soared 21 percent on Wall Street overnight on unexpected demand in Europe, dealers said.
However, investors were advised that they trade these renewable energy stocks with caution, as there are few signs that oversupply in the global solar energy sector would be reversed any time soon, dealers said.
At the end of Taipei trading, shares of Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶) added 7 percent, the maximum daily increase, to NT$38.50, shares of Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光) gained 4.29 percent to NT$21.9 and shares of Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽) rose 2.98 percent to NT$32.8.
ASE spoksperson steps down
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest chip packaging and testing company, said in an exchange filing that Allen Kan (甘智文) relinquished his role as deputy spokesman because of an investigation by local prosecutors.
Kan, who is also a finance director, has not left the company, while it was not immediately clear if he would keep the finance role, Grace Teng (鄧述恩), an investor relations representative, said by telephone yesterday. Chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思), who is also deputy spokesman, will continue in both roles, while president Richard Chang (張洪本) will remain spokesman for the company, Teng said.
Prosecutors are investigating some ASE employees for possible insider trading related to its 2009 acquisition of Universal Scientific Industrial Co (環隆電氣), the company said in a filing on Saturday. Kan was not immediately available for comment, Teng said.
Water to naptha cracker intact
The Water Resources Agency yesterday denied media reports that said Formosa Plastics Group’s (台塑集團) sixth naphtha cracker in Yunlin County would face a water shortage after a dam was damaged by torrential rains this week.
Agency spokeswoman Tyan Chau-ling (田巧玲) said part of the dike surrounding a dam in Nantou County’s Jiji Township (集集) that supplies water to the naphtha cracker was washed away by the heavy rain a day earlier.
However, she assured that there would be no problem in the facility’s water supply because the agency has activated the backup supply system. Formosa Plastics also denied media reports that the damage at the dam would shut off water supply and impact the group’s operations, saying the backup system is functioning normally and water supply is sufficient.
NT dollar closes up
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, edging up NT$0.011 to close at NT$29.980.
Turnover totaled US$863 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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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