Stocks gained yesterday, led by exporters such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Media-Tek Inc (聯發科技), after US reports showed the world's largest economy will improve in the next three to six months.
"The US economy will remain the main driving force behind Taiwan's growth," said Fam Hsieh, a fund manager at Grand Cathay Securities Trust Co (
"Taiwan's exporters will benefit from strong overseas demand," Hsieh said.
The TAIEX added 7.1, or 0.1 percent, to 5,757.91 on turnover of NT$112.05 billion (US$3.29 billion). For the week, the index gained 2 percent.
Seven stocks rose for every four that declined. The futures contract for September delivery fell 0.1 percent to 5,756.
Hon Hai Precision, the country's biggest electronics maker, added NT$3, or 2 percent, to NT$157. MediaTek, the world's largest supplier of semiconductors for DVD players, climbed NT$9, or 2.3 percent, to NT$394.
Delta Electronics Inc (
Delta Electronics (Thailand) Pcl, a unit of Delta, may build a 4.8 billion baht (US$118 million) plant to boost production, an investment that may fetch tax breaks. The company wants to extend its tax-free status, which expires in 2005, for another eight years, executive director Anusorn Muttaraid said.
Evergreen Marine Corp (
Evergreen had its ``buy'' rating maintained by Deutsche Bank AG as stronger demand pushed freight rates higher.
ProMOS Technologies Inc (
ProMOS is seeking two investors to fund 38 percent of a planned $2.5 billion memory-chip plant, the South China Morning Post reported.
Director Albert Lin (林育中) said ProMOS was in talks with potential investors without naming them, the newspaper reported. The potential investors aren't Taiwanese and a deal could be completed before the end of the year, Lin said.
ProMos hopes to start building the new plant, its second to make memory chips on 300-millimeter silicon wafers, in the first half of next year, the report said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (
United Microelectronics Corp (
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts