TAIEX edges slightly lower
The TAIEX edged slightly lower in a quiet session yesterday as many investors stayed on the sidelines before global index provider MSCI releases the results of its index revisions today, dealers said.
Market sentiment also remained cautious amid lingering concerns over the world’s economic fundamentals after the GDP of the eurozone for the second quarter contracted 0.2 percent from a quarter earlier, they said.
In the high-tech sector, smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) fell 4.13 percent to close at NT$243.50 after the company said chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) did not buy any HTC shares last month, which only made investors more keen to lock in the stock’s 5.83 percent gain a day earlier. In June, Wang spent more than NT$1.8 billion to buy 5 million shares in the open market to support the share price.
The weighted index closed down 11.51 points, or 0.15 percent, at 7,467.74, after moving between 7,442.72 and 7,489.81, on turnover of NT$73.39 billion (US$2.45 billion).
Dimerco Express opens LA office
Dimerco Express Corp (中菲行), a Taipei-based global logistics and service provider, yesterday announced it would launch a customs brokerage service in Los Angeles to expand its business in the US.
Dimerco Customs Brokerage Services Co — the company’s subsidiary in Chicago — obtained the local customs broker permit from Los Angeles Customs on July 23, with the new office in Los Angeles, the company’s second branch in the US, starting operations on Wednesday next week.
“With the potential in providing logistic services across the US, combining the existing convenient air and sea-freight service, Dimerco can further develop its global business,” the company said in a press release.
Dimerco’s subsidiaries in Chicago and Los Angeles are to work closely with Dimerco Express (USA) Corp and its 15 global branch offices to provide logistics services to its clients worldwide, the release said.
Banks bid for lottery rights
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) yesterday submitted their applications to the Ministry of Finance to bid for the exclusive right to manage the issuance of Public Welfare Lottery tickets from January 2014.
Bidding for the 10-year issuance rights attracted only these two financial institutions.
The committee set up by the ministry would pick one of these two financial institutions by the end of October.
In 2005, Chinatrust outbid three rivals by offering NT$14.61 billion in cash rewards over a seven year period which would come to an end at the end of this year.
Hotai starts NT$8bn project
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), a local agent of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp, has launched a three-year, NT$8 billion project to enhance its presence and services in Taiwan, the company said yesterday.
The company plans to remodel and upgrade all of its 136 outlets by 2015, including showrooms and service workshops, marking the largest investment in the company’s history, the company said.
The project is to include retail facilities and repair centers for both Toyota and Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand.
Hotai Motor has a 34 percent share of the local auto market and aims to raise its market share to 40 percent by 2015.
NT dollar inches down
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.037 to close at NT$30.002.
Turnover totaled US$557 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