STOCK MARKET
TAIEX falls 1.13 percent
The TAIEX took another beating yesterday, falling more than 1 percent to end below 8,400 points as investors were motivated by steep declines on Wall Street overnight to unload large-cap stocks. The TAIEX closed down 95.97 points, or 1.13 percent, at 8,377.90, on turnover of NT$76.226 billion (US$2.36 billion). Credit Suisse Group AG has lowered its TAIEX target to 8,800 points by the end of this year, from its previous estimate of 9,000, to reflect lower earnings contributions from listed companies in the near term, according to a report on Thursday.
FINANCE
FSC eyes P2P lenders
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Thursday said that it would summon three Web-based peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders to explain their operations over concerns about potential irregularities. The commission’s action came after one of the P2P lenders recently advertised returns of up to 30.15 percent, which exceeds the legally allowed maximum of 20 percent that may be claimed by creditors. The commission said the issue raised concerns about potential usury and potentially false advertisements touting high returns. The commission said that P2P lenders may not enable the members to securitize debts to multiple creditors, as the act might violate the Securities and Exchange Act (證交法) and regulations governing multi-level marketing.
ELECTRONICS
Unimicron posts net loss
Unimicron Technology Corp (欣興電子), a Taoyuan-based printed circuit board (PCB) maker, swung to a net loss of NT$231 million, or NT$0.15 in losses per share, in the first quarter on slow seasonal demand, the company said yesterday. Unimicron posted a net profit of NT$874 million in the previous quarter, company data showed. Gross margin fell to 9.5 percent in the first quarter from 12.5 percent and revenue dropped 13 percent quarterly to NT$15.33 billion, the company said. Unimicron remains cautious about its business outlook for this quarter and expects recovery to begin in the third quarter, chief financial officer Shen Tsai-shen (沈再生) said yesterday.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Parade EPS hits US$0.14
Parade Technologies Ltd (譜瑞), a leading video display and interface IC supplier, on Thursday reported net income of US$10.79 million for the first quarter, with earnings per share of US$0.14, the highest in the past six quarters. The company said its sales for this quarter would likely reach a range of between US$66 million and US$72 million this quarter, compared with last quarter’s US$70.63 million. The company also expects gross margin to stay between 40 percent and 43 percent, with operating expenses between US$16.5 million and US$17.5 million.On April 21, Parade announced a collaboration with Samsung Electronics Co to deliver AMOLED panels for tablets and notebook computers by useing its DP699 timing controllers.
FOOTWEAR
Yuanta positive on outlook
Given the recent strong earnings results of global footwear and sportswear brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, Skechers and Columbia Sportswear, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said it is positive on this year’s outlook for the Taiwanese footwear and textile industry. Considering the Rio Olympic Games this August, Feng Tay Enterprises Co (豐泰企業), Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業) and Taiwan Paiho Ltd (台灣百和) might be major beneficiaries, driven by Nike’s strong future orders growth, Under Armour’s revenue contribution and Adidas’ new shoe upper orders, Yuanta said in a note yesterday.
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