Christmas hopes boost TAIEX
The TAIEX jumped technical hurdles ahead of 7,500 points in increased trade to end the session above that level, dealers said.
Buying focused on large-cap stocks in the high-tech sector on hopes that sales of electronics will be boosted by the upcoming Christmas shopping season, while select old-economy shares staged a technical rebound from their relatively low valuations, the dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 68.62 points, or 0.92 percent, at 7,503.55, after moving between 7,466.49 and 7,521.52, on turnover of NT$99.44 billion (US$3.42 billion).
Chipmaker to auction factory
Financially troubled memorychip maker ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) said it was scheduled to hold a second-round auction for an advanced 12-inch factory on Dec. 12 after an auction conducted earlier yesterday failed to find a winning bidder.
ProMOS said it would set the floor price unchanged at NT$19.2 billion for the new auction.
No bidders yesterday were qualified to sign a contract to buy the plant, as no bidder paid the NT$1.5 billion signing fee, ProMOS said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Firms retain ‘best brand’ titles
Seventeen companies have retained their title as the “best brand” in their respective business categories for the fifth year in a row, according to the results of an annual survey released yesterday by Business Today magazine.
Seven of the repeat winners were from Taiwan, namely EVA Airways (長榮航空), Chinatrust (中國信託), Sinyi Realty (信義房屋), Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信), Asustek (華碩), Giant (捷安特) and Taiwan Beer (台啤). The other 10 winners were Chanel, Tiffany, Montblanc, Nike, Hennessey, Johnnie Walker, Regent, Osim, Brands and Amway.
The survey, covering brands in 34 business categories, was conducted from July 26 to Aug. 27 among 1,500 businesspeople in Taiwan. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.53 percent.
Reading of trade bill approved
The Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee on Wednesday approved the first reading of a bill to amend the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法), which aims to impose heavy punishment for leaking trade secrets.
The bill must still pass two screenings by the legislature in order to become a law.
It stipulates that those who attempt to steal or disclose trade secrets for personal profit may be subject to up to five years in prison and a fine of NT$1 million to NT$10 million. If the gains from the theft of trade secrets exceed the maximum fine of NT$10 million, the court could raise the fine by up to 300 percent at its discretion, the bill states.
Those found guilty of stealing or disclosing trade secrets to foreign countries, including China, Hong Kong or Macau, may be imprisoned for between one and 10 years and fined between NT$1 million and NT$50 million, according to the bill. If the gains exceed the maximum fine of NT$50 million, the court could increase it by two to 10 times at its discretion, it states.
Current and former civil servants with access to trade secrets could be sentenced up to 150 percent of the normal punishment, if they violate the law, the bill says.
US optimism boosts NT dollar
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.028 to close at NT$29.147 amid increasing optimism toward a possible solution to a pending “fiscal cliff” in Washington, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$786 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