EQUITIES
Shares face pressure
Shares in Taiwan faced pressure yesterday, as worry escalated over a cluster of domestic COVID-19 cases at a preschool in New Taipei City. However, late buying of semiconductor stocks helped cap a downturn in the broader market. The TAIEX closed down 158.38 points, or 0.91 percent, at 17,270.49. Turnover totaled NT$321.087 billion (US$11.57 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$1.09 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
AUTO PARTS
Tong Yang revenue rises
Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), a supplier of automotive metal sheets and bumpers, yesterday reported revenue for last month increased 0.7 percent to NT$1.49 billion, compared with NT$1.48 billion in July. The company in a statement attributed the anemic growth last month to persistent increases in transportation costs, congestion at ports and delayed shipments. On an annual basis, revenue rose 4 percent from NT$1.43 billion. In the first eight months of this year, cumulative revenue increased 8.57 percent year-on-year to NT$11.94 billion from NT$11 billion, it said.
ELECTRONICS
AUO sales decline
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) yesterday reported NT$32.71 billion in revenue last month, down 1.9 percent from NT$33.35 billion in July due to price declines. The Hsinchu-based flat-panel maker’s shipments decreased 3.6 percent sequentially to 2.71 million square meters. Last month’s revenue marked the best figure for August in about seven years. In the first eight months of the year, cumulative revenue surged 48.9 percent to NT$244.65 billion, compared with NT$164.34 billion in the same period last year.
FURNITURE
Coaster revenue dips 7.25%
Furniture dealer Coaster International Co (客思達) yesterday reported revenue last month decreased 7.25 percent from July and dropped 37.06 percent from a year earlier to NT$594.44 million. Coaster, which sources its furniture from China and Southeast Asia, said that the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 has affected consumer purchase, while congestion at ports on the US’ west coast and production disruptions at Southeast Asian suppliers also created difficulties. In the first eight months of the year, cumulative revenue fell 9.89 percent year-on-year to NT$6.08 billion, the company said.
BANKING
Lithuania rises for Taipei
Lithuania has broken into the top 10 markets for credit card spending for residents of Taipei since February, National Credit Card Center (NCCC) data showed on Tuesday. The European nation was 10th with credit card spending of NT$51.4 million in February, which rose to NT$445 million in April, or fourth for residents in the capital, the data showed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Concert platform launched
HTC Vive Originals on Monday launched a concert platform to allow recorded performances to be projected into a live virtual venue and accessed by audiences around the world. The Beatday platform is available on desktop computers and mobile devices, said HTC Vive Originals, the content arm of HTC Corp (宏達電). The initial content on Beatday is to feature recorded concerts and music videos, using holography technology, which utilizes light diffraction to create a live virtual 3D venue, HTC Vive Originals said.
TOP PERFORMER: The computer and optical products sector’s annual increase in output of 31.84 percent was the largest among Taiwan’s six major industries The industrial production index last month increased 16.06 percent year-on-year, rising for a third consecutive month as local manufacturing continued to boom, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Industrial production measures the change in the value of output produced by the local manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors. Last month’s growth, the largest annual expansion in 34 months, came as increases in manufacturing output, water supply, and electricity and gas production more than offset a retreat in mining output, the ministry said in a report. Manufacturing output, which accounted for 95.39 percent of the industrial production index, also rose for a third consecutive
Two global credit ratings firms lowered their forecasts for China’s property market, as an accelerating slump in home prices hampers the country’s efforts to rescue the sector. S&P Global Ratings now expects residential sales to drop 15 percent this year, more than the 5 percent decline it projected earlier. That would put sales below 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion), about half the peak in 2021, the ratings company said on Thursday. Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut its annual sales estimate to a decrease of 15 to 20 percent, worse than an earlier estimate of a 5 to 10 percent drop. The ratings firms’
A US banking giant fired more than a dozen employees for “simulating keyboard activity,” highlighting a battle within productivity-obsessed corporate America to tame a culture of faking work with gizmos such as mouse jigglers. The sackings by Wells Fargo & Co come as employers use sophisticated tools — popularly called “tattleware” or “bossware” — on company-issued devices to monitor productivity in the age of hybrid work that took off after the COVID-19 pandemic. Some workers seek to outsmart them with tools such as mouse movers — which simulate cursor movement, preventing their devices from going into sleep mode and making them appear
POSITIVE OUTLOOK: Taiwan’s exports are improving, with a 20 percent increase in electronic product shipments and a smaller decline in non-electronic shipments Taiwan’s GDP is forecast to grow 4.36 percent year-on-year this year, as the economy is expected to benefit from rising exports and stable private investment, led by semiconductor companies and firms linked to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said on Friday. The forecast represents a 0.67 percentage point increase from its previous estimate of 3.69 percent in March, Yuanta said in a report. Major research institutes since April have raised their predictions for Taiwan’s economic growth this year, with the estimated growth ranging from 3 percent to 3.94 percent — higher than the average of 3.14