TAIEX won’t break 10,000: poll
Only 9 percent of respondents thought the TAIEX will breach the 10,000-point mark by the end of this year, even though the local bourse has risen more than 10 percent since the beginning of this year, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday.
The survey, conducted between July 1 and July 7, showed that many investors became cautious about the stock market following the recent strong showing. In the survey, which collected 21,753 valid questionnaires, 23.4 percent said the TAIEX would range between 9,300 points and 9,699 points by the end of the year, 22.5 percent thought the index would move between 8,700 points and 8,999 points, and 18.3 percent expect a range between 9,700 points and 9,999 points. The TAIEX closed 0.88 percent lower at 9,484.73 points yesterday.
Sanyang elects new chairman
Leading motorcycle and car manufacturer Sanyang Industrial Co (三陽工業) yesterday said its board had elected Chang Hung-chia (張宏嘉) as chairman, replacing Huang You-mei (黃悠美).
The company completed a fierce proxy vote war last month, with Chang, chairman of Feng Chun Group (豐群集團), and his allies winning five seats on the company’s nine-member board and the remaining four going to Huang and her allies.
Chang is the son of Chang Kuo-an (張國安), who cofounded Sanyang with Huang Ji-jun (黃繼俊), the grandfather of Huang You-mei, during the 1980s.
Taiwan, Myanmar ink ICT deal
Taiwan and Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday on cooperation in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).
The memorandum is to further expand ICT cooperation and exchanges by promoting exchanges in information technology, business know-how, Chinese language learning, marketing and promotion and development of business opportunities, according to the Taipei Computer Association, one of the signatories.
Makalot profit rises 26.7%
Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽), a diversified garment manufacturer for global brands and major clothing retailers, on Tuesday said that pretax profit for the first half of the year rose 26.7 percent to NT$1.029 billion from NT$812 million in the same period of last year.
Earnings per share were NT$6.07 in the six-months period, the highest in the company’s history.
The company attributed the increase to higher average selling prices for its products and cost reduction through its vertical integration in the sector.
Evertrust to hire 3,000
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest real-estate agency by number of outlets, on Tuesday said it is looking to hire 3,000 new workers in the second half of the year to widen its talent pool.
The 3,000 job openings include positions for salespeople, who will be guaranteed a monthly salary of NT$50,000 (US$1,667) for the first nine months, according to Evertrust manager Lee Ming-tsung (李明宗).
MediaTek launches 4G LTE chip
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Tuesday launched what it called a “true” octa-core smartphone chip to support 4G long-term evolution (LTE) services.
The company said the new smartphone chip, coded MT6795, is its flagship smartphone system on chip (SoC) designed to empower high-end device makers to leap into the Android 64-bit era. The new chip is the first device in the world to provide support to 2K displays, MediaTek said.
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