China’s growth improves TAIEX
The TAIEX rebounded yesterday from a slump a day earlier on better-than-expected GDP growth in China in the fourth quarter of last year, dealers said.
However, turnover was thin as investors remained wary of corporate earnings reports due later on Wall Street after US-based chip supplier Intel Corp on Thursday reported a 27 percent decline in net profit in the fourth quarter, they said.
The weighted index closed up 116.23 points, or 1.53 percent, at 7,732.87, on turnover of NT$69.92 billion (US$2.41 billion).
Shares fall for Innolux
Shares of Innolux Corp (群創光電), Taiwan’s largest flat-panel maker, fell 1.77 percent to close at NT$13.90 yesterday after the final price for its global depositary receipts (GDRs) sold a day earlier was set at roughly 8 percent below the company’s share price.
Innolux on Thursday announced that the GDRs were priced at US$4.481 per unit, equal to NT$12.98 for each Innolux common share. That represented a discount of about 8.3 percent off Thursday’s closing price of NT$14.15.
The company raised US$504 million from the GDR sale a fundraising effort to meet its obligations under a debt restructuring agreement with its creditor banks.
TSMC sells corporate bonds
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has raised NT$21.4 billion from selling corporate bonds to investors, including KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) Grand Cathay Securities Corp (大華證券), and Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀行), according to the company’s term sheet and separate stock exchange filings by various financial institutions.
TSMC priced NT$6.2 billion of five-year bonds at a yield of 1.23 percent, NT$11.6 billion of seven-year bonds at a yield of 1.38 percent, and NT$3.6 billion of 10-year bonds at a yield of 1.50 percent, according to the term sheet.
Hon Hai raises NT$11.05bn
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it raised NT$11.05 billion from a bond sale, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company said it sold NT$7.45 billion five-year bonds at a yield of 1.33 percent and NT$3.6 billion seven-year bonds at a yield of 1.45 percent, the filing showed.
Former minister joins agency
Former Council for Economic Planning and Development minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) has been appointed a member of Hong Kong’s newly established Economic Development Commission.
Liu is among 22 non-official members of the agency.
The agency, headed by Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), is responsible for advising the territory’s government on strategy and policy to promote economic growth and development of the special administrative region.
Treasury bills yield rises
The yield of the government’s 182-day Treasury bills reached 0.63 percent in an auction yesterday, higher than the 0.618 percent recorded in the previous sale of 182-day bills on Dec. 14, the central bank said in a statement.
Yesterday’s sale attracted bids for 2.62 times the NT$25 billion bonds on offer, more than 2.6 times recorded last time, the statement said. The banking sector was the biggest buyer of the bills, buying 96 percent of the issuance, it said.
NT dollar up against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar closed higher against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.025 to close at NT$29.060.
Turnover totaled US$579 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