TAIEX down on futures selling
The TAIEX closed lower yesterday on futures-led selling as foreign institutional investors had to settle large short-position contracts on the local futures market, dealers said.
Selling focused on select large-cap stocks, in particular in the electronics sector, amid lingering concerns over a rising New Taiwan dollar. Old economy stocks also pulled back as investors locked in gains they had posted in recent sessions, they said. The weighted index closed down 64.59 points, or 0.83 percent, at the day’s low of 7,700.43, on turnover of NT$83.44 billion (US$2.88 billion).
Unpaid leave figure drops
The number of workers on unpaid leave has decreased by more than 1,000 over the past two weeks, government statistics released yesterday showed.
The total number of furloughed workers was 3,217, employed by 49 companies, as of Tuesday, the Council of Labor Affairs said.
HTC phone tops Amazon list
HTC Corp’s (宏達電) new flagship smartphone has become the best-seller on Amazon.com Inc’s cellphone sales rankings in the US, beating the likes of products from archrival Samsung Electronics Co.
Launched on Nov. 14 through mobile operator Verizon Wireless, the 5-inch HTC Droid DNA topped Amazon’s ranking in the category of best-sellers in cellphones with service plans, while Samsung’s popular 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II and 4.8-inch Galaxy S III came in second and third respectively, Amazon said yesterday.
OLED TV sales to outpace UHDs
Shipments of OLED televisions are expected to outpace those of ultra-high-definition (UHD) TVs worldwide by 2015, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) predicted yesterday.
Global UHD TV shipments will total 500,000 units this year and an estimated 3.2 million units in 2015, compared with OLED TV shipments of 50,000 units this year and 3.24 million units in 2015, it said.
The gap will widen in 2017, when global OLED TV shipments are expected to top 10 million units, well above an estimated 5.95 million UHD TVs.
Currently, only South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc makes OLED TVs, while at least five companies, including Samsung Electronics Co, Japan’s Sharp Corp and Taiwan’s AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), produce UHD TVs.
Flat-panel R&D up 11.1%
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that in the first three quarters of last year, four major flat-panel makers in Taiwan — Innolux Corp (群創光電), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) and Hannstar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) — spent a total of NT$18 billion on research and development, up 11.1 percent from the same period last year.
The ministry said the increase in R&D spending was expected to boost the global competitiveness of the nation’s flat panel sector.
Kaohsiung has highest debt
Residents in Greater Kaohsiung continued to shoulder the heaviest debt burden in Taiwan as of the end of last month, the Ministry of Finance’s “Local Government Debt Clock” showed yesterday.
Its debt totaled NT$224.13 billion at the end of last month, translating into NT$80,700 in debt per capita, ministry data showed.
The Miaoli County Government placed second-highest on the list by posting NT$68,000 in debt per person, followed by Taipei, Yilan County and Hsinchu County.
NT dollar inches lower
The New Taiwan dollar closed lower against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.043 to close at NT$29.099.
Turnover totaled US$653 million during the trading session.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six