The TAIEX is likely to weaken further today as the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday might unnerve investors, even though government officials tried to play down the tragedy as an isolated incident.
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said the attacks probably would not have repercussions on global financial markets like the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that caused Wall Street to slump after a four-day suspension.
“The commission would monitor the local bourse, but would not introduce special measures, because doing so would send the exact opposite message,” Tseng said.
The attacks on Paris are unfortunate, but there is no need to panic given that the impact on global economic activity might be limited, Tseng said.
The main trading index dropped below the quarterly average to 8,329.5 on Friday after lawmakers failed to act on plans to lower or scrap the capital gains tax on stock investments.
Global funds are pulling out in search of higher returns elsewhere on expectations that the US Federal Reserve is to raise interest rates next month, analysts said, adding that the nation’s poor economic performance is accelerating the flight.
The terrorist attacks are bound to deepen the feelings of unease, unfavorable for local shares, state-run Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) said.
Small and open, the local bourse is vulnerable to continued corrections in US and European shares that have yet to assimilate the attacks on Friday night, Chu said.
Foreign funds, in particular, would seek safe haven in advanced markets and slash local equities further to reflect Wall Street’s 1.16 percent fall and the tragedy, Chu said.
The TAIEX might next test the 8,200 resistance while the National Stabilization Fund watches from the sidelines, Chu said.
“The government would like to save its strength in the run-up to the presidential elections in January,” Chu said on the phone.
In the meantime, the local currency might soften to trade below the NT$33 level against the greenback seen early last month, after losing 0.54 percent last week, analysts said.
The downward adjustments of TAIEX’s weighting in three indices compiled by MSCI Inc supporting the depreciation, analysts said.
Turnover is likely to remain small as investors prefer to stay out for the time being, Marbo Securities Consultant Co (萬寶證券投顧) analyst Winson Wang (王榮旭) said.
“The Paris attacks might have a short-term impact though it is too early to pass judgment now,” Wang said by telephone.
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