TAIEX recovers after losses
The TAIEX recouped most of its earlier losses to end little changed yesterday as select large-cap stocks, in particular in the financial sector, staged a rebound, dealers said.
However, notebook computer stocks encountered heavy downward pressure throughout the session after Hewlett-Packard gave a disappointing earnings estimate for next year, they said.
Among the notebook computer stocks that fell victim to the HP forecast, Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) fell 3.99 percent to close at NT$74.50, and Wistron Corp (緯創) shed 4.62 percent to end at NT$33.05.
The weighted index closed down 2.29 points, or 0.03 percent, at 7,682.34, after moving between 7,621.38 and 7,689.08, on turnover of NT$67.99 billion (US$2.32 billion).
At the end of the session, the paper and pulp sector had suffered the heaviest selling among the eight major market sectors, finishing down 0.8 percent.
CAL joins global cargo alliance
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), Taiwan’s largest carrier, announced yesterday that it has joined SkyTeam Cargo, making it the first airline in the country to partner with the only global airline cargo alliance.
CAL senior vice president James Yu (余劍博) said at the International Air Cargo Forum and Exposition in Atlanta that membership of SkyTeam Cargo means that the carrier will be able to expand its shipping network from 84 destinations in 27 countries to 864 destinations in 174 countries.
Yu said that as part of the alliance, CAL and carriers such as Delta Cargo, China Southern Cargo and Air France Cargo will be able to share resources such as terminals and ground handlers, which means faster connections for customers.
Such coordination will not only reduce the airline’s operational costs but will also raise the total volume of air cargo transported to or through Taiwan, he said.
Largan to provide job boost
Taiwan-based cellphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Industry Co (大立光) announced yesterday it will recruit about 1,000 new employees for its facilities in the Central Taiwan Science Park in a bid to boost production.
It said a new factory located in the science park is scheduled to operate in the fourth quarter, and the latest round of its recruitment efforts was designed to facilitate production at the new plant.
Largan said it will join up with the administration bureau of the science park to hold a job fair on Oct 18.
Taiwan eyes SE Asia deals
Taiwan is stepping up efforts to land deals with countries in Southeast Asia to establish a banking presence in the region, the nation’s financial regulator said on Wednesday.
Taiwan is striving to sign memorandums of understanding with Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, as well as India, to establish banking presences in those countries, as market access to these emerging economies is often heavily regulated by local authorities, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday quoted unnamed banking bureau officials as saying that a deal with Cambodia will be signed soon.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.017 to close at NT$29.388.
The local currency reached NT$29.198 on Sept. 17, the strongest level since May 3.
Turnover totaled US$519 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