■ Window-dressing lifts shares
Shares closed 1.06 percent higher yesterday on the back of year-end window-dressing, dealers said.
Property developers and companies with high stakes in real estate grabbed the spotlight again, as they are expected to benefit from the launch of the high speed rail link between Taipei and Kaohsiung expected next month.
The TAIEX rose 80.78 points to 7,727.59 yesterday, a fresh six-year high, with turnover of NT$109.82 billion (US$3.37 billion).
Risers led decliners 772 to 384, with 190 stocks unchanged.
■ Micro-Star secures PRC tender
Micro-Star International Co (微星科技), the nation's top-tier motherboard maker, said yesterday that its notebook computers and server products had been selected by the Central Trust of China (中央信託局) in a recent tender.
Central Trust -- whose business operations include banking, insurance, trade and warehousing -- is in charge of purchasing computers and related IT products for government agencies and educational institutions.
"This is a chance for us to break into the market traditionally dominated by Acer and Asustek Computer," Micro-Star said in a statement.
The last tender saw Central Trust purchase 70,000 PCs for government and business.
■ No change for Fubon, Cathay
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) yesterday affirmed its credit ratings for Fubon Number One Real Estate Investment Trust (Fubon No. 1 REIT), Fubon No. 2 REIT and Cathay No.1 REIT, each with a stable outlook, the ratings agency said in separate releases.
Taiwan Ratings said the positive ratings on the three REIT products reflected their good asset quality, a satisfactory tenant mix, conservative financial policy and strong links with respective financial group members in the Fubon group or the Cathay group.
Fubon No. 1 REIT was the first REIT to be set up in Taiwan in March last year. The trust has a property portfolio of NT$8.09 billion (US$247.8 million), consisting of two office buildings, one retail serviced property and one serviced apartment.
The property portfolio of Fubon No. 2 REIT amounts to about NT$7.3 billion, while Cathay No. 1 REIT holds a NT$13.9 billion property portfolio consisting of Sheraton Taipei Hotel, Taipei Ximen Building, and Taipei Chunghwa Building, Taiwan Ratings said.
■ Delegation set for Israel
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will send a business delegation to Israel from Jan. 21 to Jan. 28 to seek opportunities for investment or technological cooperation, ministry officials said yesterday.
Israel's high-tech businesses in the software design, information communications and biotechnology sectors enjoy a leading position on the international market.
It would be mutually beneficial if Taiwan, which is professional in marketing and high-tech product manufacturing, and Israeli technological research professionals could forge cooperative relationships, the ministry said.
The delegation is scheduled to visit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, where it will hold presentations to introduce Taiwan's investment environment, especially in the sectors of information communications and semiconductors.
■ NT dollar drops further
The New Taiwan dollar continued losing ground against its US counterpart yesterday in quiet trade in line with a weak Japanese yen, after latest Japanese economic data confirmed that the Bank of Japan will not hike interest rates next month.
The NT dollar closed NT$0.04 lower at NT$32.650 on the Taipei Forex Inc, on turnover of US$476 million.
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
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
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure