EQUITIES
TAIEX rebounds after slump
The TAIEX yesterday staged a moderate technical rebound following Friday’s slump as bargain hunters bought into select market heavyweights, especially in the bellwether electronics sector. However, turnover remained thin as many investors stayed on the sidelines to see how tensions between Washington and Beijing play out after China unveiled plans to implement national security legislation in Hong Kong to tighten its grip on the territory, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 60.03 points, or 0.56 percent, at 10,871.18, on turnover of NT$146.074 billion (US$4.86 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$4.57 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. As the TAIEX closed above the 20-day moving average of 10,829, further gains are possible in the near term, dealers said, but added that any upturn would be limited amid concerns over the US-China tensions.
ECONOMY
Money supply grows
Last month’s M1B — a measure of the money in circulation — grew 7.5 percent year-on-year from 7.02 percent in March, mainly due to faster growth in passbook savings deposits, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. However, M2 — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — saw annual growth decrease to 4.21 percent from 4.42 percent a month earlier, mainly due to net capital outflows and slower growth in bank loans and investments, the central bank said. For the first four months of this year, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 7.28 percent and 4.39 percent respectively, it said. That compared with average growth rates of 7.21 percent for M1B and 4.45 percent for M2 in the first three months.
INVESTMENT
Foreigners sell securities
Foreign investors sold a net NT$34.97 billion in local securities last week, after they bought NT$225.7 billion and sold NT$260.67 billion, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. The top three securities overbought by foreign investors were handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科), contract laptop maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), while the top three securities oversold by foreign investors were contract electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), the exchange said. Foreign investors have so far this year sold a net NT$654.38 billion in securities, the exchange said. As of Friday, foreign investors accounted for 40.48 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
FOOD
UniEat to offer free service
Food service start-up UniEat Co Ltd (肚肚), which operates a joint venture with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Wowprime Corp (王品), is to offer free service to select restaurants to boost takeout and delivery sales. The company, newly approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to join a government plan designed to help restaurants boost sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic, yesterday said that it would provide up to 888 Apple Inc iPads to local restaurants. UniEat, also known as Dudoo, said it would also provide free point of sales systems to restaurant operators via its Web site. The government plan allows a subsidy of up to NT$15,000 per restaurant to pay for various services.
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