EQUITIES
TAEIX closes up
The TAIEX recouped early losses to close higher yesterday, with trading buoyed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) mid-session announcement that it would not be cutting its first-quarter sales forecast. The chipmaker in January said it expects revenue of US$16.7 billion to US$17.5 billion, with a median forecast of US$17.1 billion. The TAIEX closed up 94.70 points, or 0.61 percent, at 15,598.49. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$251.507 billion (US$8.22 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$4.52 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
EQUITIES
Foreigners sell NT$9.28bn
Foreign institutional investors last week sold a net NT$9.28 billion of local shares, after selling a net NT$9.31 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) and Unimicron Technology Corp (欣興電子), while the top three bought by foreign investors were Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) and Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), the exchange said in a statement. As of Friday last week, foreign investors had bought NT$226.35 billion of local shares since the beginning of this year, while the market capitalization of the shares held by foreign investors was NT$19.66 trillion, or 40.54 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
ELECTRONICS
MediaTek shares soar 9.41%
Shares of handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday soared 9.41 percent to close at NT$791 after the company announced a proposal to issue a NT$76 per share cash dividend based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$74.59. The proposed payout represents a cash dividend yield of 9.61 percent and a payout ratio of 101.89 percent. If approved by shareholders on May 31, the proposal would be the second-highest payout for listed companies, after smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) proposed a cash dividend of NT$85.5 this year based on earnings per share of NT$169.47 last year.
TELECOMS
C.H. Jih joins Taiwan Star
Taiwan Star Telecom Corp’s (台灣之星) board of directors yesterday approved president Cliff Lai’s (賴弦五) resignation and tapped former Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) executive C.H. Jih (揭朝華) as his successor to accelerate its integration with Taiwan Mobile, the company said in a statement. The changes took effect yesterday, it added. Taiwan Mobile is acquiring Taiwan Star Telecom in a NT$19.72 billion deal after obtaining conditional approval from the National Communications Commission in January. Over the past 30 years, Jih worked in telecom and cable TV posts at Taiwan Mobile subsidiaries including Taiwan Fixed Network Co (台灣固網) and Kbro Co (凱擘).
ENERGY
CPC to hold LPG prices
CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it would keep retail prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as well as those of industrial-grade propane, butane and LPG used in vehicles unchanged this month as part of the state-run company’s measures to help stabilize domestic consumer prices, it said in a statement. The company has held back price hikes of NT$22.1 per kilogram in total since October 2019 to adhere with a government policy on pricing, it 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