TikTok dancer's worst nightmare just came true.

MagicAnimate takes any static image and turns it into a full-blown animation. Imagine the Mona Lisa, and now imagine if da Vinci had the technology to record her dancing. The team behind MagicAnimate made that a reality.

Want to know how it works? According to the team, “MagicAnimate employs a video diffusion model and an appearance encoder for temporal modeling and identity preserving” for the sample image. For the animation process, it uses a “simple video fusion strategy that produces smooth video transition during inference.”

I’m not sure what all of that means either, but the results speak for themselves.

ByteDance isn't the only company working on turning images into video. Alibaba is building a tool called Animate Anyone that will be released in the future.

So the next time you want to show off your dancing skills, skip the recording, snap a photo and try…

Viet Business Forum

Prospects and challenges of technology stocks

 

Currently, information technology businesses in Vietnam mainly deploy software services based on the subscription model, bringing more recurring and stable revenue. Even though the pandemic is over, this group's revenue and profit are still relatively positive...

Prospects and challenges

Vietnam's information technology (IT) workforce is highly adaptable to the development of new technologies. A large number of young employees, with good technical backgrounds, continuously improve their programming skills to a higher level. In addition, IT organizations train and educate about 50,000 programmers every year in addition to a proficient human resource of 400,000 IT engineers.

Also with competitive advantage in cost. The cost of hiring a software developer in Vietnam ranges from 10-25USD/hour, while other Asian countries have higher salaries, with the average in China being 18-50USD/hour (for programming). low-level programmer), in Thailand is from 13-40 USD/h, in the Philippines is 17.5-42.5 USD/h.

Government support policy for IT companies. Decision No. 2205/QD-TTg approving the Intellectual Property and Cyber ​​Security Development Program. Growth decelerates in software powerhouses such as China and Ukraine due to the unstable business environment, which brings great opportunities for IT businesses...

Global economic growth is more negative than forecast, leading to new revenue cuts and delays in implementing new IT projects. IT labor costs increase faster than expected because Vietnam still lacks 150-200 thousand IT engineers each year in the period 2022-2024. These are challenges for domestic IT businesses.

Besides, major economies, except China, are expected to have a “soft landing” in 2023, which will reduce overall IT spending. But there is still no sign of a decline in IT projects and budgets.

Since the pandemic, businesses have leaned towards OPEX-type IT spending (e.g. subscription-based Cloud services) to improve operational efficiency and productivity, while significantly cutting infrastructure spending. on-site infrastructure (which requires large CAPEX). The falling share of CAPEX IT spending in total IT spending makes spending in specific areas of equipment, hardware, and on-premises infrastructure more vulnerable to economic weakness, as cuts Reducing these costs is relatively easy when businesses want to save money...

Stocks with rich potential

FPT: Currently, the international IT services segment, (especially the US and EU) will grow more slowly in 2023 when high inflation in developed markets will slow down IT spending, while businesses Revenue from the Japanese market is likely to accelerate in 2023 thanks to work volumes and a recovering JPY.

The long-term prospects for this segment are still attractive because FPT 's competitive advantage of low costs will help ensure the number of new contracts in the future and high demand as businesses will still promote digital transformation.

With the domestic IT segment, FPT's revenue can record high growth due to expectations that demand from banks will recover and the digital transformation progress of government agencies will also accelerate.

ELC: The need to invest in smart transportation systems (GTTM) for upcoming expressways under the North-South expressway project and digital application in the transportation systems of major cities will Promoting growth for ELC in 2023.

In the period 2023-2026, ELC's GTTM segment will generate an average revenue of VND 600 billion, supported by GTTM investment demand for highways (including ETC) and cities, contributing nearly VND 60 billion. % into ELC's revenue structure.

Risk: The progress of completing the North-South Expressway is slower than expected or ELC does not win the GTTM packages of these expressways as expected. Investments in other units (because ELC plans to develop the Real Estate segment), if made, will reduce the group's operating efficiency.

Investors can open new purchases around the support zone of 10,500-11,000 VND/share to hold for a long-term goal of at least 1 year when ELC reaches the mark of 22-25,000 VND/share.

CMG: Telecommunications sector, the main contributor to CMG profits - is ready for the explosion of the Cloud services market. CMG owns an extensive telecommunications infrastructure, including a domestic fiber optic cable system connected to the international marine fiber optic cable network and three Tier-3 DCs. The new DC with high technical standards in Tan Thuan will help significantly increase CMC Telecom's capacity (up to 1,800 racks), capturing the rapid growth of demand for Cloud services in Vietnam.

CMG's 2023 P/E valuation is 14.4x, recommending buying when CMG price drops sharply. Risk of capturing IT spending from foreign customers and slower-than-expected service transition (moving to services higher in the IT value chain) of the Technology & Solutions segment. Investors can open a new purchase around 40,000 VND/share and cut losses when CMG breaks this price range and hold for a longer target when CMG reaches the target of 50-55,000 VND/share.

Mr Khoi

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Tiếp Thị Kinh Doanh

 

Viet Business Forum

The benefits of celery in the elimination of uric acid from the body

Celery helps reduce uric acid levels in the body, preventing the risk of gout. Graphics: Phuong Anh© Labour 

 

Long-term high uric acid puts pressure on the kidneys and joints in the body, so we must persistently reduce the amount of acid in our daily lives. Here is the effect of celery in uric acid elimination, reducing the risk of gout.

Gout is a form of arthritis that causes pain, swelling, heat, and redness in one or more joints. The joints most commonly affected are the joints of the big toe, fingers, knees ... The cause of gout is too large an accumulation of uric acid in the body.

Celery is a food containing a number of essential nutrients for the body including vitamins A, C, K, potassium, fiber, calcium ... A study published in health and lifestyle news site Ayur Times (India) found that celery can inhibit production as well as reduce uric acid levels in the body. This helps reduce the risk of gout.

In addition, the antioxidants in celery vitamin C aid in the elimination of natural chemicals in the body. This helps reduce the buildup of free radicals that can harm cells and lead to cancer and other diseases.

Celery is ranked as one of the vegetables that contain few calories and support weight loss, regulate lipid metabolism. The benefits of celery in weight loss are quite clear because this food contains a lot of fiber to help the body stay full for a long time.

Besides, celery contains other antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients that should provide protection to the digestive tract. Natural fiber has this type of food that promotes health and aids digestion.

The large amounts of the plant compound phthalide present in celery are also important for aiding in lowering blood pressure. This compound relaxes the walls of arteries in the body to help blood flow and lower blood pressure.

 

Viet Business Forum

Rare stocks are still cheap in the VN30 basket

Since the beginning of the year, 80% of stocks on the floor have increased, while up to 54% of businesses have lost profits or decreased profits over the same period.

According to statistics from Agriseco Securities experts, the price of many groups of stocks increased sharply and has started to surpass the peak in the past. Since the beginning of the year, 80% of stocks on the floor have increased, while up to 54% of businesses have lost profits or decreased profits over the same period.


In terms of valuation, the P/E and P/B valuation levels of many groups of stocks have ceased to be attractive and even approached the highlands compared to the past. Based on valuations at August 4, 8, 2023% and 38% of stocks listed on HOSE have higher P/B and P/E valuations than the last 46-year average, respectively. If compared to the end of 5 (before COVID-2019), up to about 19% of stocks have higher P/E and P/B than that time.

Agriseco Research forecasts that the market's profit will grow positively again in the second half of the year with third-quarter and fourth quarter growth of 10-12% and 50-55% respectively above the low base of the same period. Thereby, full-year profit can grow by 4-8% compared to last year.

"VN-Index will recover to 1,250 points by the end of 2023 on the basis that: The whole market profit can regain growth momentum in the second half of 2023 with a growth rate of 4-8% and a reasonable P/E of 13 times. In addition, favorable and disadvantageous factors are still intertwined from both domestic and foreign countries including inflation gradually cooling, exchange rates under control, interest rates falling..." - forecast experts.

In terms of stocks, in the opening stages of a new bull cycle of the market, large-cap stocks are often the earliest cash flow options, especially cash flows from institutional and foreign investors. Experts from Agriseco have filtered through the VN30 index basket to find stocks whose valuations are still low. The method is to compare P/B correlated with ROE profitability and compare P/B and P/E to the 5-year average.




For Method 1, only 3 out of 30 stocks are recording lower P/B valuations than before COVID-19 and at the same time have an improved ROE. Which includes TCB, VIC, VRE.

For Method 2, 11 out of 30 stocks are recording lower P/B and P/E valuations than the last 5-year average. In which, there are 6 bank stocks in the VN30 basket including ACB, HDB, MBB, TCB, TPB, VIB. There are also BVH, GAS, SAB, VHM, VRE stocks.

Therefore, to satisfy both of the above filtering methods, only 2 stocks in the VN2 basket currently have cheap valuations: TCB and VRE.

The expert said: "The valuation of the VN30 group is no longer too cheap. The group of stocks with P/E and P/B correlated valuations that are cheap compared to the past are mostly bank stocks."

Read the original post here.

Viet Business Forum