TAIEX closes down
The TAIEX closed marginally down yesterday on thin turnover in consolidation mode after a surge during the previous trading day.
The benchmark index fell to a low of 7,674.18 points during trading session, but was boosted by a rise in financial, optoelectronics and automobile shares, to reach a high of 7,739.37 points.
The broader index closed down 7.95 points, or 0.1 percent, at 7,724.92, on turnover of NT$53.13 billion (US$1.83 billion), following a 116 point surge on Saturday, when turnover reached nearly NT$70 billion.
CCP expected to drop this year
The nation’s city consumption power (CCP) expected to drop slightly this year in terms of year-on-year growth, but the total volume is forecast to increase by about NT$76 billion to NT$5.6 trillion, according to the results of a study released yesterday.
Growth rate of CPP is predicted to decline to 1.36 percent this year from 1.38 percent last year, according to a report conducted by Fu Jen Catholic University.
The study showed that Taipei topped the nation’s cities with the highest assessed per capita city consumption power index at NT$392,434 per person this year, followed by Hsinchu City’s NT$327,815.
Taipei’s real estate profitable
Taipei is the top ninth city in the Asia-Pacific region for this year in terms of real estate investment profitability, according to a recent survey published by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Taiwan.
According to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia-Pacific 2013, Taipei moved from 12th place last year to 8th place this year in terms of development.
Jakarta, Indonesia, topped the rankings for both investment and development for the first time, while Shanghai and Singapore took second and third places in investment and fourth and third in development respectively, the survey showed.
Lite-on aims to boost revenue
Local electronic component maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) aims to increase its revenue by a single-digit percentage this year, backed by robust demand for its cloud-computing servers, camera lens modules used in tablets and smartphones, and LED lighting.
Last year, Lite-On’s revenue rose 2 percent to NT$121.45 billion from NT$102.29 billion in 2011.
“We hope the company can have a better growth than last year’s single digit rate [in revenue],” chairman Raymond Soong (宋恭源) said at the company’s year-end party on Friday.
He added that the company plans to allocate 15 percent of its net profits from last year for employee bonuses.
CyberAgent plans investment
Japanese venture capital firm CyberAgent Ventures Inc said yesterday that it plans to invest in FashionGuide, Taiwan’s largest cosmetics-centered online social networking Web site.
CyberAgent Ventures said it forecast FashionGuide has the potential to achieve a high sales growth rate in Taiwan’s female-oriented online social networking industry, according to a company statement.
CyberAgent added it will help FashionGuide expand its market to Japan, China, Southeast Asian countries and South Korea.
Founded in 1997 by Vincent Hsieh (謝攸升) and Allen Chang (張倫維), FashionGuide broadcasts TV programs, conducts surveys and also hosts online forums.
NT down against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar closed lower against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.01 to close at NT$29.070.
Turnover totaled US$438 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