Stocks rose to a one-month high yesterday, led by surging chip makers and packagers.
The TAIEX rose 46.79 points, or 0.71 percent, to 6,660.76, its highest close since Feb. 20 when the index finished at 6,686.55.
It also gained for a seventh day, heading for its longest winning stretch in more than four years.
"It appears that investor sentiment for upstream semiconductor-related shares has been strong," said Shawn Wang, a trader at Fubon Securities (
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest contract chipmaker by revenue, gained 3.2 percent at NT$21.15, on hopes the utilization of its factories this year may be better than the market previously expected, the trader said.
The market now expects the company's factory utilization to reach 80 percent from around 70 percent last year, analysts said.
Larger rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (
But Alan Tseng (
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (
"The company's revenue is likely to grow in the second quarter from the first on strong demand for chip testing in communications devices, more than previously expected," said Andrew Chen, an analyst at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (
Siliconware Precision Industries Co (
Chip packagers may raise prices by as much as 10 percent in June, the Chinese-language Commercial Times said, without saying how it got the information.
Electronics companies rose 1.1 percent overall, but the steel sector surged 3 percent, outperforming other sectors, partly on expectations of a 10 percent rise in iron ore prices this year.
China Steel Corp (
Steel wire makers such as Feng Hsin Iron & Steel Co (豐興鋼鐵) and Wei Chih Steel Industrial Co (威致鋼鐵) may raise prices as strong demand has started to cause shortages in some products, the Economic Daily News, a Chinese-language daily reported, citing an unidentified steel distributor. Feng Hsin rose 6 percent to NT$30.85. Wei Chih advanced 5.1 percent to NT$4.73.
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