STOCK MARKET
Shares close lower
Shares in Taiwan closed slightly lower yesterday as large-cap stocks took a pause throughout the trading session after a rally seen a session earlier, dealers said. Market sentiment turned cautious amid lingering fears over a possible interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, while many investors preferred to take to the sidelines, simply watching how high-tech firms would report their sales data for last month, they said. The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange closed down 5.9 points, or 0.07 percent, at 8,457.40, after moving between 8,441.28 and 8,497.19, on turnover of NT$89.96 billion (US$2.73 billion). The market opened up 0.15 percent and rose to the day’s high on follow-through buying from a 1.71 percent increase seen on Tuesday, but with the index moving closer to the nearest technical resistance at about 8,500 points, selling set in to drag the index into the red and the weakness continued until the close, dealers said.
COMPUTERS
Acer joins climate pledge
Acer Inc’s (宏碁) US branch yesterday announced that it has joined the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, along with more than 140 companies from across the US that are standing with US President Barack Obama’s administration to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to climate action and to voice support for a strong outcome to the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties in Paris. Acer said it pledged to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2020. It said it would continue to buy 100 percent “green” power for its US operations and increase “renewable” energy purchased for its international operations.
ENERGY
Reserve margin drops
Taiwan’s energy operating reserve margin yesterday dropped to 3.99 percent — the lowest level recorded over the same period of time in past six years — mainly because of warm weather and a coal-fired power plant’s temporary shutdown, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said. Taipower said a privately owned coal-fired power plant in Hualien County suspended electricity supply yesterday morning due to a broken pipe, causing a power supply shortage. It said it has activated a high-cost backup power plant to supply electricity for nationwide use.
AUTOMOBILES
Foxconn eyes electric cars
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), an assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhone devices, is reportedly investing 1.2 billion yuan (US$187.52 million) to set up an electric automobile service company in Hangzhou, China. The investment is part of Foxconn’s collaboration plan with the Hangzhou City Government under a strategic agreement inked in March, according to several Chinese media outlets. The new company is to offer an electrical-car rental services with more than 5,000 vehicles in the next three years, reports said.
RETAIL
Fashion fuels Cosmed sales
Cosmed (康是美), the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain operator, yesterday announced its annual report, relating high-volume sales to the latest consumer trends. Cosmed said, for example, that local consumers have begun favoring the “straight across” eyebrow look that has been trending in South Korea, driving up sales of eyebrow pens and mascara products by 60 percent.
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