TAIEX surges on tech rebound
The TAIEX closed above the 7,300 point mark yesterday after investors bought into bargains, taking their cue from a government statement that it was time for government-run funds to pick up stocks after a recent slump, dealers said.
Buying focused on large-cap stocks, in particular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most weighted in the local bourse, which prompted many investors to chase prices to push the index even higher at the end of the session, they said.
Shares of TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, rose 4.60 percent to close at NT$95.50, while rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) gained 7 percent, the maximum daily increase, to end at NT$10.80 on a strong technical rebound.
The weighted index closed up 220.25 points, or 3.1 percent, at the day’s high of 7,326.01, off an early low of 7,148.97, on turnover of NT$84.13 billion (US$2.89 billion), up from NT$46.82 billion recorded a session earlier.
Hon Hai works with Sharp
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, said the company’s cooperation with Japanese consumer electronics supplier Sharp Corp continues, while talks on capital investments in the Japanese firm have yet to yield results.
Hon Hai said negotiations on further bilateral collaboration are under way and an appropriate time will be found in the future to disclose the details to the public.
The Taiwanese firm has launched 60-inch LED TVs that use flat panels manufactured by Sharp’s 10th-generation plant in western Japan, in which Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) holds a 46.5 percent stake.
China Steel shares go up
Shares of China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the largest steelmaker in Taiwan, moved higher yesterday after the company raised its domestic wholesale product prices for January-February contracts on a recovery in global demand.
Investors have high hopes that the price hikes will boost China Steel’s revenue in the first quarter of next year, leaving behind its recent repeated price cuts amid the weakness of the world’s economic fundamentals, dealers said.
Shares of China Steel rose 2.40 percent to close at NT$25.55 (US$0.88), with 24.55 million shares changing hands.
On Thursday, the company announced it has raised domestic wholesale prices for January-February contracts by 0.39 percent, or NT$82 per tonne on average, from next month.
Cosmos makes cash plan
Shareholders of Cosmos Bank (萬泰銀行) yesterday approved the company’s plans to slash its capital and then raise NT$1 billion in new shares via private placements to replenish capital eroded by losses.
Under the company’s plans, Cosmos is to cut its capital by 46.54 percent, or NT$13.28 billion (US$451.9 million), to NT$15.26 billion, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan stock Exchange.
The bank is then to adopt a rights issuance of 100 million shares through private placements, with potential buyers including SAC PEI Taiwan Holdings BV and China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工銀).
NT rallies against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar turned stronger against the US dollar yesterday, increasing NT$0.014 to close at NT$29.171 as foreign institutional buying in the local bourse boosted demand for the local unit.
Optimism toward the Asian economy on the back of improving manufacturing activity in China also encouraged traders in the region to raise their holdings in regional currencies, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$612 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