Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-28
By: CNA

The Taiwan unit of Yahoo predicted Monday that its mobile traffic on

e-commerce business will exceed PC traffic in 2015 thanks to the Web portal’s “Mobile First” strategy that has been pushed by CEO Marissa Mayer since 2012.

The company’s mobile transactions accounted for 30% of its total e-commerce revenues in the first quarter of this year, with mobile traffic exceeding 40% of the overall traffic on e-commerce platforms, according to Jacky Wang, vice president of the e-commerce group at Yahoo Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Mobile traffic on Yahoo Taiwan’s Super Mall, one of its three major e-commerce platforms, took a 57% share of the total in the first quarter, surpassing PC traffic for the first time, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/28
By: Emerson Lim and Evelyn Kao

Manila, April 28 (CNA) Taiwan was the third-biggest source of imports to the Philippines in February, behind only China and the United States, according to a report published Tuesday by the Philippines’ National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The total value of Philippine imports in February expanded to US$5.3 billion in February from US$4.8 billion in the same month of last year. The increase was in stark contrast to a 12.4 percent decline in January, according to the report.

China accounted for 16.3 percent of the total import value, followed by the United States at 10.7 percent, Taiwan at 8.4 percent, Singapore at 8.2 percent, Japan at 7.6 percent, Germany at 6.7 percent, Thailand at 6.4 percent, South Korea at 6.3 percent, Malaysia at 4.6 percent and Indonesia at 4.2 percent, according to the report.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-27
By: CNA

Analysts said the Taiwan stock exchange’s benchmark weighted index, the

TAIEX, is closing in on 10,000 points and that foreign institutional investors will be one of the key factors determining when the psychological barrier is breached.

On Friday, the TAIEX gained 115.79 points, or 1.18%, to close at a 15-year high of 9,910. Since the beginning of this year, the index has risen 6.51% after gaining 8.08% in 2014.

Allianz Global Investors Taiwan fund manager Corrina Xiao said the momentum driving capital inflows could slow down, with investors still preferring large weighted stocks because of their better profits and outlook, when publicly traded companies start to release their first quarter earnings reports.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/27
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Scully Hsiao

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) Taiwan’s economy continued on a path of moderate growth in March, although risks increased, with a set of indicators used to monitor the country’s business activity flashing yellow-blue for that month, the National Development Council said Monday.

In March, the monitoring indicator index fell by three points from a month earlier to 21, the lowest in 12 months, according to the nation’s economic planning body.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-26
By: CNA

The market capitalization of the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) hit a new high

as of Friday after foreign institutional investors aggressively bought into local shares for the whole week, according to the exchange.

The TWSE said that the market cap of the local main board on Friday rose NT$337.2 billion (US$10.9 billion) or 1.19%, from a session earlier to a record high of NT$28.74 trillion (US$935 million).

The increase in the market cap came after the weighted index on the TWSE jumped 115.79 points, or 1.18%, at 9,900 on Friday. Foreign institutional investors, who rushed to pick up electronics heavyweights, had bought a net NT$46.48 billion (US$1.5 billion) worth of local shares in the session. The net buy was the third-highest level in history.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/25
By: Jalen Chung and Frances Huang

Taipei, April 25 (CNA) The production value of Taiwan’s machine tool sector is expected to grow slightly in 2015 because of growing demand from the United States, the world’s largest economy, according to the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK, 工研院產業經濟與趨勢研究中心).

In a report, the IEK said Taiwanese machine tool makers could also get a boost this year from rising demand in some European countries, such as Spain and Switzerland, and from higher car sales driven by lower fuel prices.

The output value of Taiwan’s machine tool business will grow 1.3 percent to 2.5 percent in 2015 to about NT$152.9 billion (US$4.92 billion), according to the IEK, a research unit under the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院).     [FULL  STORY]