The TAIEX gained for a fourth day yesterday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
The TAIEX added 5.38, or 0.1 percent, to 6,605.85, for a four-day gain of 2.6 percent. About the same number of stocks gained and declined. Taiex Futures for February delivery were unchanged at 6,615.
About 8.7 billion shares changed hands, 89 percent above the average daily trading in the past three months.
TSMC rose NT$0.50, or 0.8 percent, to NT$63. The company's board yesterday approved a NT$2 dividend for last year in the form of cash and shares. TSMC plans to offer a stock dividend of NT$1.40 plus a cash dividend of NT$0.60 a share, compared with the NT$0.80 stock dividend the company paid for 2002 profit.
Tainan Business Bank (台南企銀), a Tainan-based regional lender, gained NT$0.85, or 6.6 percent, to NT$13.70. It may invite six banks to buy each other's shares to help block a takeover attempt by King's Town Construction Co (京城建設), a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing people it didn't identify at Tainan Business.
The bank said it's unaware of a potential takeover attempt by the owner of King's Town.
"Financial industry consolidation is expected to push many financial stocks higher this year," said Tracy Chen, who oversees US$73 million at Prudential Securities Investment (保誠投信).
King's Town, which develops property in the south, rose NT$3.50, or 6.1 percent, to NT$60.50.
China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) gained NT$0.70, or 3.9 percent, to end at NT$18.90.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) said earlier this month its affiliated companies such as China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) and KGI Securities Co (中信證券) may buy China Development.
China Life Insurance said it does not rule out the possibility of buying more shares of China Development Financial, the paper reported eysterday. KGI Securities gained NT$1, or 6 percent, to NT$17.60. China Life rose NT$0.60, or 2.6 percent, to NT$24.
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) gained NT$4, or 6.2 percent, to NT$69 after saying it plans to set up a drugstore venture in Shenzhen with the first store to open in the second quarter.
President Chain expects to control at least 65 percent of the 50 million yuan (US$6 million) ven-ture, with Guandong-based Livzon Pharmaceutical Group taking the rest, its chief financial officer Fred Chen said (陳福唐).
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
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
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