Largan Precision shares rise
Shares of Largan Precision Co (大立光), which supplies smartphone camera lens products, rose 6.01 percent yesterday to close at a fresh high level of NT$2,380, making it still the most expensive stock on the local bourse.
The impressive showing boosted the company’s market value to more than NT$319.25 billion (US$10.67 billion), an increase of NT$156.2 billion since the beginning of the year, Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data showed.
Foreign institutional investors yesterday bought a net 320,000 shares in Largan, pushing them to hold 40.94 percent of the company’s outstanding shares as of yesterday, the data showed.
Vacancies at two-year high
The latest Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) data showed that the vacancy rate for employees in local companies — including both service and industrial sectors — rose to 2.9 percent in February, the highest level since 2011.
The vacancy rate in the manufacturing sector topped that among the industrial sector, with a rate of 3.14 percent, the DGBAS said in the report.
In the service sector, the overall vacancy rate amounted to 2.78 percent, while real-estate firms recorded the overall highest vacancy rate at 4.96 percent, the report’s data showed.
The report said economic recovery has boosted orders and business for local firms, leading to higher human resource demands.
Manufacturing sluggish: index
The slowing year-on-year growth in export orders and industrial production last month has led the composite index for the manufacturing sector to flash a “yellow-blue” signal last month, indicating sluggish sentiment, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The composite index gauges the health of the manufacturing sector in terms of demand, selling prices, costs, production input and operating environment.
The index rose to 11.89 points last month from a revised 12.6 points in April, flashing “yellow-blue” for the third consecutive month, the institute said in its monthly report.
About 30 percent of the total value of production in the manufacturing sector came from industries flashing “blue,” indicating declining sentiment, with nearly half from industries flashing “yellow-blue,” the report said.
Tsai invited to NXP board
NXP Semiconductors NV has invited Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) chairman and chief executive Rick Tsai (蔡力行) as a non-executive director in the Dutch firm’s board, effective today.
“I am excited to be able to welcome Rick Tsai as non-executive director; he adds a wealth of semiconductor industry expertise and experience to our Board of Directors,” NXP chairman Peter Bonfield said in a statement on Friday last week.
Tsai joined Chunghwa Telecom on Jan. 28. Prior to joining Chunghwa Telecom, he served as the chairman and CEO of TSMC Solar Ltd (台積太陽能) and TSMC Solid State Lighting Ltd (台積固態照明).
NT dollar makes huge advance
The New Taiwan dollar had its biggest quarterly advance in more than two years amid optimism economic expansion is gathering pace.
The NT dollar appreciated 2 percent this quarter and 0.2 percent yesterday to NT$29.915 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc statistics. It is the biggest advance since the period ending on March 31, 2012.
“Heading into the second half, there may be more inflows pre-positioning for elections and tech launches,” Hong Kong-based Standard Chartered PLC’s currency strategist Eddie Cheung said.
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