TRADING
Electronics boost market
The stock market yesterday gained ground with the help of large-cap electronic companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), despite an overnight fall in the NASDAQ. The TAIEX closed up 96.73 points, or 0.89 percent, at 10,932.11 on turnover of NT$164.46 billion (US$5.35 billion). In closing at its highest level since June 21, the TAIEX finished above the weekly moving average for the second straight week and above the six-month moving average of 10,867. TSMC rose 5.7 percent to close at NT$237.50, its highest close since April 19.
BANKING
Lending interest rates dip
The nation’s five major state-run banks last month saw their average lending interest rates fall to 1.301 percent, down 0.163 percentage points from 1.464 percent a month earlier. The five lenders are Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行). The decline indicates increasing competition to offer firms cheaper costs on loans intended for working capital and capital expenditure, the central bank said in a statement. Excluding government loans, interest rates averaged 1.313 percent, down 0.207 percentage points from 1.52 percent in May, the bank said.
ELECTRONICS
Tul income falls 66.28%
Tul Corp (撼訊), which supplies gaming and embedded graphics cards, yesterday reported that net income last month fell 66.28 percent year-on-year to NT$10.55 million, with earnings per share of NT$0.35. Revenue also declined 6.73 percent to NT$406 million, it said. Tul is a major beneficiary of rising demand for graphics cards for gaming computers and cryptocurrency mining, but as the mining frenzy abates, the company’s shares have become volatile and it was required by the stock-exchange regulator to release last month’s financial results. Its unaudited second-quarter net income was NT$11.61 million, or NT$0.39 per share, on revenue of NT$1.25 billion, Tul said. Shares closed 6.79 percent lower yesterday at NT$130.5.
LEADERSHIP
FSC’s Cheng picked for NDC
The Executive Yuan yesterday appointed Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Vice Chairman Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂) to serve as deputy minister of the National Development Council (NDC), replacing Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), who tendered his resignation on July 8 after being caught taking photographs of a women’s legs at a Taipei MRT station. Cheng’s position is to be filled by Chang Chuang-chang (張傳章), a professor of finance at National Central University, the Executive Yuan said. Cheng was known as a capable researcher during his tenure as chief economist at Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) and served as president of Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (全國農業金庫) prior to taking the FSC position.
AIRLINES
AirAsia to fly to Chiang Mai
Budget airline AirAsia Bhd on Thursday announced that it is to launch four direct flights weekly between Taoyuan and Chiang Mai in Thailand on Sept. 30. The flights are to operate every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, making AirAsia the second carrier in Taiwan to fly the route after EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), which started the service on July 1. The route is part of AirAsia’s continued efforts to work in line with Thailand’s tourism plans, the carrier 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