■ Bargain hunters boost stocks
Shares ended higher yesterday led by bargain-hunting in technology companies that reported good results for the second quarter or predicted a positive outlook for the third. The TAIEX closed up 48.39 points, or 0.8 percent, to 6,375.64. "Companies that are expected to report decent second-quarter earnings or have given a rosy second-half outlook were especially favored," said Stanley Chou, a manager at Barits Investment Service. Shares in the world's two largest contract chipmakers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), rose on buying by institutional investors, Chou said. TSMC added 1.5 percent to NT$53.90 while UMC gained 1.1 percent to NT$22.75. Mobile phone companies continued to rise on hopes the launch of third-generation services in Taiwan will boost demand for mobile handsets in the next few quarters, analysts said. Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), whose largest client is Motorola, jumped by the daily limit of 7 percent to NT$117.5. Wistron Corp (緯創), which makes the X-Box game console for Microsoft, ended 7 percent higher at NT$29.95. "Expectations of rising orders from Microsoft in the second half triggered strong buying in the stock," Chou said.
■ Chinese offered local credit
Qualified Chinese people are now allowed to apply for and use in Taiwan credit cards issued by local financial institutions, which took effect last month, in response to a recommendation made by the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday. Chinese professionals and Chinese expatriates of multinational companies who are granted a stay exceeding six months in Taiwan are now eligible to apply for credit cards in Taiwan to the financial institutions in which they have opened NT-dollar bank accounts, the commission's spokesman Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正) said yesterday. The commission made the decision last month after consulting with Mainland Affairs Council in late May.
■ Fubon denies joint bid
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) may team up with Singapore's state-owned investment company, Temasek Holdings, to bid for Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), as the government wants to sell the entire bank to a buyer in late September or early October, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, without citing sources. Fubon Financial spokesman Victor Kung (龔天行) denied his firm is seeking to partner with Temasek. But he wouldn't rule out the possibility of Fubon Financial working with other companies to bid for government-controlled banks, the report said.
■ Walsin Lihwa plans China plant
Walsin Lihwa Corp (華新麗華), a local electrical copper wire supplier, is expected to increase production capacity by about 30 percent to 450,000 tonnes through the construction of a 100,000 tonne-per-year plant in China, Reuters reported yesterday, citing a company statement. The new plant will be located in Nanjing and is scheduled for completion next year, the company said, without elaborating on the investment value.
■ NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar turned stronger against its US counterpart yesterday, advancing NT$0.013 to close at NT$31.953 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$711 million, compared with US$805 million the previous day.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”