EQUITIES
TAIEX edges lower
Local shares yesterday closed slightly lower on reduced turnover after giving up earlier gains amid lingering concerns over trade tensions between the US and China. While the bellwether electronics sector staged a technical rebound, the upturn was capped, while old economy and financial shares came under heavy downward pressure, which led the TAIEX to close down 7.28 points, or 0.07 percent, at 10,457.22. Turnover fell to NT$94.845 billion (US$3.01 billion) from NT$129.86 billion on Tuesday. Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$11.12 billion of shares on the main board after a net sale of NT$7.18 billion a day earlier, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
TRADE
ECA committee established
Taiwan and Eswatini yesterday established a joint committee to push for bilateral economic cooperation. Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) and visiting Swazi Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo signed a resolution for the establishment of the joint committee under the Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECA) between Taiwan and Eswatini, which took effect in December last year. Eswatini is the nation’s only diplomatic ally in Africa. Bilateral trade between the nations was US$10.54 million last year, up from US$7.6 million in 2017, Bureau of Foreign Trade data showed.
RECEIPT LOTTERY
Five prizes unclaimed
Five receipts that each won NT$10 million in the receipt lottery in the first quarter of the year have yet to be claimed, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The ministry urged the winners to act before the deadline of July 5. There were a total of 20 receipts that won the NT$10 million prize, but only 15 of them have been claimed to date. Two of the five unclaimed winning receipts were issued in Taipei, the ministry said. Winners of the receipt lottery can redeem the cash prizes at 13,000 locations nationwide.
ELECTRONICS
Retaliation costly for Apple
Apple Inc’s earnings would take a 29 percent hit if China were to retaliate against the US with a ban on sales of the iPhone maker’s products, Goldman Sachs has estimated. Goldman Sachs believes Intel Corp’s latest XMM modems for the iPhone are made in the US, while Apple’s A-series chips are made in Taiwan, and its memory and display components also originate from outside China. Most of the rest of the iPhone supply chain is in China and if Beijing were to restrict iPhone production in any way, Goldman Sachs does not expect Apple would be able to move the supply chain outside the country at short notice, analysts including Rod Hall wrote in a note.
CHINA
Technology taxes cut
China is cutting taxes on its fledgling software and integrated circuit industries as US export controls threaten to handicap its technology companies. The Chinese Ministry of Finance’s announcement yesterday came amid a spiraling tariff dispute with Washington over Chinese technology ambitions. Under the new measures, software and integrated circuit companies founded before the end of last year would owe no income tax for two years and the rate would be cut by half for three years after that, the ministry said. Its statement gave no details.
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