Stocks fell on concern sales growth at the nation's electronics companies will slow after Nvidia Corp said revenue will be unchanged in the fourth quarter, a period when holiday shopping typically boosts sales.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
The TAIEX lost 146.36, or 3 percent, to close at 4,664.65, its largest drop since Oct. 7. The benchmark has risen more than a fifth from this year's low of 3,850.04 on Oct. 11.
"People are wondering if the rebound is over," said Louis Lee, who helps manage NT$2 billion (US$58.2 million) at President Investment Trust Corp (統一投信).
Dealers said as the index approached the psychological 5,000 point level, investors also became wary of Wall Street's weakness on Friday amid concerns over the US economic outlook and a possible war in the Middle East.
Rotational play among non-electronic shares proved insufficient to offset the losses in the electronic sector, they added.
"The fact that many non-electronic shares led by China plays [which have close business ties with China] continued to gain ground reflected a pervasive note of optimism on the market outlook" said Michael Hsu, assistant vice president of Fuh Hwa Capital Management (
Investors were advised to look for bargains if the market further weakened towards 4,600 points and below as the chances for the benchmark index to fall below 4,500 points in the near term were slim, Hsu said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in