Shares closed 1.21 percent higher yesterday as Wall Street chalked up another record finish overnight with investors banking on a soft landing for the US economy, dealers said.
They said an easing of local political tensions after the failure of a second legislative motion to force a referendum on the future of embattled President Chen Shui-bian (
The TAIEX rose 84.22 points to close at 7,068.80, after trading between 7,046.65 and 7,096.51, on turnover of NT$101.84 billion (US$3.07 billion). Risers outpaced decliners 817 to 291, with 156 stocks unchanged.
The construction subindex hit its highest level in more than six years, rising 1.9 percent to its best close since February 2000 on pent-up demand. The sector has risen 58 percent so far this year, traders said.
However, profit-taking might begin hitting construction shares soon, they added.
Dealers said the bellwether technology sector came under the spotlight again as investors took their lead from technology stocks listed on the NASDAQ and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Despite the gains, investors remained wary about the sustainability of the bull run in the US against the backdrop of a slowing economy, they said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) closed up NT$2.20 at NT$63.20 and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) rose NT$0.20 to NT$18.40.
Makers of flat panel displays gave up earlier gains on profit-taking, with AU Optronics Corp (友達) down NT$0.05 at NT$47 and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美) down NT$0.10 at NT$37.10.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by