Samsung Electronics Co, the world's largest maker of memory chips, and three rivals were raised to "buy" by Merrill Lynch on higher-than-expected demand for chips that store data in computers and consumer electronics.
Shares of Samsung, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, Elpida Memory Inc and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
Memory chip sales will gain 8 percent this year and 14 percent in 2006, after an earlier projection for sales to shrink the next two years, Simon Woo, a Seoul-based Merrill analyst, wrote yesterday.
Merrill's upgrade on the industry is a contrast to other brokerages including UBS AG, which earlier this week cut its recommendations on Europe's largest chipmaker, Infineon Technologies AG, because of concerns about oversupply and falling semiconductor prices.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks 19 chipmakers, has risen 8.1 percent this year.
"The market is definitely rebounding, but whether the current conditions will last remains a question," said Seiichiro Iwamoto, who manages about US$9.7 billion in stocks at Fuji Investment Management in Tokyo.
Shares of Suwon-based Samsung Electronics rose 0.9 percent to 554,000 won (US$ 539.68) and Ichon-based Hynix's stock gained 4.6 percent, its biggest advance in a month, in Seoul.
The two South Korean companies are the world's two biggest memory-chip makers.
Elpida, Japan's top memory-chip maker, surged 5.7 percent to ?3,330 (US$ 30.38), the biggest gain in four months, in Tokyo.
Hsinchu-based Powerchip, Taiwan's largest memory chip supplier, advanced 4.5 percent to NT$20.90, the biggest gain in almost two months.
Woo said other chipmakers, which make the benchmark computer chip known as dynamic random access memory, weren't upgraded because of their lower profit margins and valuations.
Shares of Infineon, Micron Technology Inc and Nanya Technology Corp (
While Japan's Toshiba Corp and Sunnyvale, California-based SanDisk Corp will also benefit from higher-than-expected demand for NAND flash chips, which store songs and pictures in digital cameras and MP3 players, they weren't upgraded because of their "rich" stock valuations, he said.
Shares of Hynix have more than tripled and been the best- performing stock among the world's top 20 semiconductor companies since Jan. 13, 2004.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last