TAIEX fluctuates but rebounds
The TAIEX rebounded yesterday to end above the 7,700-point mark with the help of financial and electronics stocks.
The market’s benchmark weighted index opened at the day’s lowest of 7,685.67 points and then quickly climbed to the day’s highest of 7,717.35 before fluctuating in a narrow range the rest of the session.
It closed up 42.09 points, or 0.55 percent, at 7,714.67 on turnover of NT$55.81 billion (US$1.90 billion).
Among the eight major sectors of the market, the construction sector was the only one that lost ground, closing down 0.3 percent.
In all, 2,289 stocks closed up, 2,195 finished down and 505 remained unchanged.
Preparing for new iPhones
Taiwanese companies in the Apple Inc supply chain have begun preparations to produce parts for new iPhone models likely to be launched in the third quarter of this year, First Capital Management Inc (第一金證券投顧) said in a note yesterday.
First Capital, a subsidiary of First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), said Apple is expected to adopt a dual screen-size iPhone strategy this year to cater to the growing trend toward larger displays and better resolution.
Apple will launch a 4-inch iPhone 5S, an upgraded version of the iPhone 5, and a brand new iPhone model with a 4.8-inch display in the second half of the year, the note said.
Combined shipments of the iPhone 5S and 4.8-inch new iPhone will reach 32 million units in the third quarter and 67 million units in the fourth quarter, the note predicted.
LCD supply to reduce for 2013
The global supply of LCD will tighten this year due to limited panel capacity growth and higher demand, KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) said yesterday.
Affected by a worldwide shrinkage in capital expenditure in 2011 and last year, LCD panel capacity will grow just 1.6 percent annually this year to 157 million square meters, KGI analyst Eric Kao (高天慶) said.
By contrast, overall demand for LCD panels will still grow at an estimated annualized rate of 6.6 percent to 133 million square meters this year, outpacing capacity growth, Kao said.
“We forecast that global LCD panel capital expenditure will remain tight in 2013, further pulling down capacity growth in 2014,” he wrote in a note. “Assuming single-digit growth of demand in 2014, we predict the global panel sector will face a supply shortage” during the second half of the year, when demand traditionally surges.
Beidou support system released
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, announced yesterday the world’s first five-in-one multi-GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receiver SoC (system-on-a-chip) solutions that support the Beidou Satellite Navigation System.
The Taiwanese company named the new product MT3332/MT3333.
According to a MediaTek press release, the Beidou system has been commercially operational since the end of last year and is currently a constellation of 16 satellites providing positioning, navigation and timing services to the Asia-Pacific region.
It can identify a user’s location to within 10m, their velocity to within 0.2m per second and clock synchronization signals (one-way) to within 10 nanoseconds. The company expects that Beidou will be one of the most important satellite navigation systems to eventually cover the entire globe by 2020.
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