The nation’s equities market is likely to see moderate upside for the rest of the year, with a more balanced performance between the technology and non-technology sectors after adjustments in the first half of the year, Credit Suisse Group AG said yesterday.
“We’re positive the Taiwan technology sector and the overall market will see a modest upside in the remainder of this year, despite cuts to earnings earlier this year,” Carsten Stoehr, head of Asia Pacific financing, told a media briefing in Taipei.
The technology sector has bottomed out, but optimism for growth has been reignited by an Apple Inc product launch scheduled for Wednesday next week, the Zurich-based financial services company said.
Specification upgrades have been the key differentiator in the smartphone industry, where there would be significant opportunities over the next two years driven by imaging improvements, said Manish Nigam, regional head of technology research.
Average selling prices would continue to climb this year and the sales volume of smartphones would increase by 1 percent next year, reversing a 4 percent decline this year, Nigam said.
The first half of the year was “eventful” as the trade dispute between the US and China intensified and prompted foreign capital flight from Asia, Credit Suisse said.
Foreign outflows reached more than US$8 billion as of Aug. 31, ending six consecutive years of net buying that totaled US$47 billion, it said.
Still, the local bourse remained resilient, outperforming stock markets across Asia by 700 basis points, Taiwan equities research head Randy Abrams said.
Revenues and pre-tax income for listed firms equaled NT$13.6 trillion (US$441.47 billion) and NT$1.9 trillion in the first half of the year, an increase of 8.3 percent and 17.5 percent respectively from a year earlier, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Taiwanese technology firms are weathering mild headwinds, including trade concerns, elevated supply chain inventory and slowing smartphone demand in China, after second-quarter restocking, Abrams said.
The industry could have a decent earnings outlook from market share gains in the advanced foundry sector, consolidation in the back-end packaging and testing sector, and healthy positioning as growth drivers diversify beyond smartphones, he said.
Smart applications in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, 5G and automotive applications would be the next big revenue drivers in the technology sector, Abrams said.
“We are seeing the penetration of electric vehicle battery technology speeding up in various key markets,” he added.
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