INVESTMENT
Foreigners net sellers
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$18.39 billion (US$573.2 million) of local shares after selling a net NT$10.39 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$1.36 trillion of local shares since the beginning of the year, it said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were Innolux Corp (群創), SinoPac Holdings Co (永豐金控) and Career Technology Co (嘉聯益). As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$15.61 trillion, or 38.44 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Zhen Ding revenue up 29%
Zhen Ding Technology Holding Ltd (臻鼎), the nation’s leading printed circuit board (PCB) supplier, yesterday posted revenue of NT$21.19 billion for last month, up 29.86 percent year-on-year and the highest monthly sales in the company’s history, thanks to handset launches by a major customer. It brought the company’s cumulative revenue in the first 10 months of this year to NT$139.64 billion, up 21.54 percent year-on-year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) yesterday forecast Zhen Ding’s PCB shipments for handsets and laptops to be higher this quarter than last quarter, adding that its handset PCB shipments for a major US brand would peak this month, after which shipments would fall sequentially. Average selling prices of the company’s products are predicted to drop by 2 to 5 percent this quarter from last quarter after the peak of mass production ends, Yuanta said.
INVESTMENT
Program supports SMEs
The Executive Yuan has approved a program worth billions of New Taiwan dollars designed to improve the competitiveness of Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on four key areas, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said on Thursday after the weekly Cabinet meeting. The NT$95 billion program, which runs from this year through 2026, would receive funding from government agencies, Lo said. It also seeks to foster world-class businesses by improving the competitiveness of SMEs in the areas of zero emissions, digital transformation, value-added innovation and co-prosperity, he added.
INSURANCE
Regulator approves funds
Taiwan’s non-life insurance companies are expected to raise nearly NT$100 billion in total capital by the end of the year as COVID-19 insurance claims continue to rise and some insurers are planning to conduct more capital injection to improve their financial state, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Thursday. Six non-life insurers — Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰世紀產險), CTBC Insurance Co (中國信託產險), Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險), Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Co (新安東京海上產險), Hotai Insurance Co (和泰產險) and Chung Kuo Insurance Co (兆豐產險) — have obtained regulatory approval to raise combined capital of NT$70.7 billion, the commission said. Cathay Century Insurance and Tokio Marine Newa Insurance are planning to conduct second capital increases of NT$10 billion and of NT$7.5 billion respectively, the commission 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