STOCK MARKETS
TAIEX to top 10,000: Yuanta
The main bourse is likely to surpass the 10,000-point level again by the end of next quarter, following months of sell-offs amid a market correction, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said yesterday. The TAIEX is expected to hit as high as 10,300 points next quarter, driven by electronics shares during the peak season for the industry, Yuanta Securities president Vincent Chen (陳豊丰) told an investment forum in Taipei. The TAIEX yesterday closed up 0.07 percent at 9,397.31. Yuanta economist Aiden Wang (王誠宏) said Taiwan’s economy is expected to pick up steam next quarter on the back of a steady US recovery and monetary easing in China, Europe and Japan.
SEMICONDUCTORS
WPG forecasts rise in sales
Semiconductor component distributor WPG Holdings Co (大聯大) yesterday said sales in the second half of the year would be higher than in the first half, as the company expects rising smartphone-related orders from Apple Inc and other companies. For the third quarter, the company expects to report monthly sales increases driven by the launches of new smartphones by major brands, WPG vice president Cliff Yuan (袁興文) said at the company’s annual general meeting in Taipei. In the first five months of the year, the company’s consolidated sales rose by 6.35 percent from the same period last year to NT$190.4 billion (US$6.13 billion). Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per share, based on last year’s net profit of NT$5.81 billion, or NT$3.51 per share.
BICYCLES
KMC plans to issue shares
Bicycle chain maker KMC Kuei Meng International Inc (桂盟國際) yesterday said it expects to raise NT$1.29 billion through a new share issuance in the third quarter after the plan received approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday last week. Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s new fund-raising plan, as well as a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share. The company reported a net profit of NT$460 million last year, or NT$4.31 per share.
PETROCHEMICALS
Formosa offers new gasoline
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only private oil refiner, yesterday launched a new 95-plus unleaded gasoline in a bid to boost sales and market share. By differentiating its offerings from its main competitor — state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) — Formosa aims to increase its market share to 21.6 percent from the current 20.6 percent. The new unleaded gasoline is to replace its existing 95-octane unleaded gasoline, the refiner said. Sales of 95-octane unleaded gasoline account for 75 percent of Formosa’s total gasoline sales, which total 4,500 kiloliters per month sold at its 527 gas stations nationwide.
TAXES
TSMC top business taxpayer
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) paid more than NT$20 billion in corporate income tax last year, making it the largest corporate taxpayer in the nation’s north, according to figures compiled by the National Taxation Bureau. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) was second with about NT$10 billion in corporate income taxes paid last year, the bureau’s data showed. The bureau’s northern area division, which covers New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, collected NT$116.02 billion in corporate income taxes last year, accounting for 42.7 percent of the nation’s total.
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