Share prices closed 0.04 percent lower yesterday as a fall in electronics stocks countered early market gains driven by an overnight rally on Wall Street, dealers said.
They said that although a record-breaking run in global oil prices supported raw materials companies and asset-backed stocks, high energy costs sparked concerns in the electronics segment.
The TAIEX closed down 2.81 points at the day's low of 6,350.90, on turnover of NT$91.03 billion (US$2.85 billion).
The electronics sector index fell 1.07 percent.
"Electronics suffered from further profit-taking as expectations of an industry improvement had already been factored into the shares," Tom Tang (湯建源), president of Kai Yuan Securities Investment Consultant Co (開元投顧), said.
Investor interest switched from electronics to old-economy stocks, he said.
"Riding on high oil prices, liquidity switched to old-economy stocks, and thanks also to a technical rebound after the previous correction," he added.
However, electronics stocks will still be crucial to the broad market's prospects going forward, Tang noted.
"The key point is whether electronics firms' earnings will improve as expected," he noted.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (
BenQ Corp (明基) shed 3.05 percent to NT$35 after a report that the information technology communication maker has decided to cut its sales target for LCD TVs to 300,000 units from 500,000 projected at the beginning of the year.
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],”