Share prices closed 0.2 percent lower in thin trade yesterday, unable to extend recent gains on a lack of fresh leads and caution ahead of upcoming corporate results, dealers said.
They said the market continues to trade in a narrow range within sight of the key 6,000 points level which it has repeatedly tested but not convincingly broken for months.
The TAIEX closed down 11.70 points at 5,933.57, on turnover of NT$44.53 billion (US$1.39 billion).
Decliners led gainers 497 to 217, with 193 stocks unchanged.
"There were no fundamental leads to encourage investors to conduct any aggressive moves," said Samson Chueh (闕山雄), an assistant vice president at Fuhwa Securities Co (復華證券).
"Investors were reluctant to build positions as they remained cautious before the disclosure of corporate earnings," he said.
Many major firms are scheduled to report their earnings for last year soon at quarterly briefings.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was up NT$0.20 at NT$49.10. TSMC is scheduled to hold an investor conference tomorrow. Rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) steady at NT$19.40 while Macronix International (旺宏) down NT$0.30 at NT$6.30.
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) closed up NT$0.20 at NT$40.90 on a report that it aims to more than double its sales of panels for LCD TV sets this year to 4.5 million.
Yulon Motor Co (裕隆) added NT$0.70 to NT$38.50 after it announced a "conservative" pretax profit forecast for this year of NT$5.0 billion, compared with NT$6.12 billion last year.
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