TAIEX takes a dive
The TAIEX fell yesterday because of concerns over the European debt crisis and a strong New Taiwan dollar, which has affected local electronics makers, dealers said.
The weighted index ranged between a high of 7,262.65 and a low of 7,129.87 before finishing 131.7 points lower, or 1.81 percent, at 7,136.05 on turnover of NT$73.58 billion (US$2.54 billion).
Overall, a total of 1,180 stocks closed up, 3,457 finished down, and 286 stayed unchanged. All of the market’s eight major stock categories closed lower, with plastics and chemical shares suffering the heaviest losses at 2.92 percent.
Share trading attracts attention
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) is looking into unusual trading volume and price movements in HTC Corp shares before the announcement of a patent settlement with Apple Inc.
The probe is standard procedure and “is not necessarily related to insider trading,” TWSE senior vice president Michael Lin (林火燈) said yesterday.
The disclosure of the Apple settlement on Sunday will be taken into account, he said.
HTC shares climbed 6.9 percent on Friday with 26.7 million shares changing hands, more than double its daily average this year of 12.7 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stock fell 6.9 percent to NT$225 yesterday, snapping a five-day, 25 percent surge.
AIT official lauds investment
The director of the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday that Taiwanese investment has helped boost US economic growth and prosperity.
Christopher Marut said Taiwanese companies have invested heavily in the US across sectors, including energy, plastics, semiconductors, transportation, logistics, information and communication technology.
Taiwan’s direct investment last year totaled US$5.2 billion, creating about 13,000 jobs in the US, Marut said during his opening remarks at the SelectUSA business forum in Taipei to promote Taiwan-US investment.
Taiwan Mobile leads the way
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) led Taiwan’s telecoms companies in earnings per share last month.
Taiwan Mobile had earnings per share of NT$0.47 (US$0.016), ahead of Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) NT$0.46 and Far Eas Tone Communications Co’s (遠傳電信) NT$0.3.
Taiwan Mobile reported on Friday net profit of NT$1.28 billion for last month and consolidated revenues of NT$8.26 billion.
On Monday, Chunghwa Telecom announced unconsolidated revenues of NT$15.69 billion and net income of NT$3.56 billion.
Far EasTone reported NT$7.22 billion in consolidated revenues and NT$977 million in net income.
Last month’s figures brought Taiwan Mobile’s consolidated revenue in the first 10 months to NT$80.48 billion and its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to NT$23.39 billion.
Ministry, FSC fail to agree
The Ministry of Finance and the Financial Supervisory Commission failed to agree yesterday on whether Taiwan’s offshore securities units (OSU) should enjoy the same tax breaks as offshore banking units, mainly on the issue of setting time limits or not.
The ministry said a “sunset clause” should be set for any tax breaks, while the commission hoped to avoid time limits.
The two sides will continue discussions after clarifying the discrepancy, a ministry official said.
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.039 to close at NT$29.129.
Turnover totaled about US$509 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