■ Shares rise sharply
Shares rose sharply yesterday on a rally in the technology sector and suspected buying by government funds.
The TAIEX finished up 121.43 points, or 2.1 percent, to 5,971.06, the highest close since Oct. 12, when it settled at 5,987.40.
Advancers outnumbered decliners 861 to 176, while 156 issues ended the day unchanged.
Dealers said investors started bargain-hunting yesterday despite the weakness in US stocks overnight, with activity concentrated in the technology sector.
"Taiwan's technology-heavy stock index typically tracks Nasdaq very closely, but it has been lagging this year," says Harvey Chang, fund manager at SinoPac Securities Corp (建華證券). Taiwan's main index has risen 2.2 percent in the past 12 months, compared with the Nasdaq Composite Index's 3.6 percent gain.
Daily turnover totaled NT$82.65 billion (US$2.50 billion), the highest since Oct. 20, when it was at NT$86.35 billion. The trading value Tuesday was NT$52.91 billion.
■ Toshiba and NEC announce JV
Japanese electronics makers Toshiba Corp and NEC Electronics Corp will jointly develop next-generation semiconductors that are smaller, faster, more efficient and less costly, the two companies announced yesterday.
The new chips will have circuit widths as narrow as 45 nanometers, allowing electronics makers to also shrink the size of their products, a joint statement said.
The companies said joint development would allow the companies to share the hefty costs associated with creating new chip technology and speed up the development process, adding they had started discussing a comprehensive alliance in their operations.
Yesterday's deal came after NEC Electronics warned late last month that it would fall deep into the red this fiscal year after falling sales and prices for a range of its chip products.
■ Direct links with China urged
Taiwan's government should push for direct transportation links with rival China to counter an outflow of business talent from the country, two credit ratings companies said yesterday.
Transporation links would make it possible to keep more Taiwanese businesses on the island and to attract more international companies, said Tony Tsai (蔡東松), a director of Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a subsidiary of Standard & Poor's.
"International businesses say that if links are improved, they can put their regional headquarters in Taiwan," Tsai said.
The director of Fitch's Taiwan branch, Jonathan Lee (李信佳), said that regular flights between Taiwan and China would allow Taiwanese business people with mainland interests to live on the island.
"If there are direct links, business people will stay in Taiwan and boost private consumption on the island," Lee said.
■ NT dollar firms slightly
The New Taiwan dollar gained as traders bet a strengthening yen will reduce the risk that regional central banks will sell their currencies. The NT dollar rose NT$0.068 to close at NT$33.648 against its US counterpart on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$560 million.
"The Taiwan dollar is tracking the yen's strength," said Sadaki Kondou, assistant general manager of the treasury department in Taipei at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, a unit of Japan's second-biggest lender. "A stronger yen leads to speculation the authorities will ease their grip on the currency."
The NT dollar also drew support after stock exchange data showed investors based outside of the country bought a net US$1.72 billion of Taiwan's equities this month.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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