Real estate firms up on TAIEX
Shares closed 1.06 percent higher yesterday, driven by Wall Street's overnight rebound and several positive company-specific developments, dealers said.
The TAIEX added 83.18 points at 7,935.54, on turnover of NT$125.39 billion (US$3.81 billion).
Companies with hefty holdings in real estate benefited from news that Far Eastern Textile Ltd's (遠東紡織) unit Far Eastern Resource Development Co (遠東資源開發) had secured approval from the Taipei County Government to develop the firm's Banciao plant into communications and medical care zones.
Risers led decliners 662 to 520, with 203 stocks unchanged.
However, analysts warned that the market may begin consolidating its recent gains going forward, given an expected psychological resistance level of 8,000 points on the index.
Powerchip, Elpida seek loan
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation's largest memory-chip producer, and Japan's Elpida Memory Inc, are seeking a NT$30 billion (US$912 million) loan to build a plant in Taiwan, two bankers with knowledge of the deal said.
The chipmakers have started discussions with banks on the financing, which will fund the plant to build 12-inch dynamic random access memory chips, according to the bankers, who declined to be identified before the loan was finalized.
The two companies are investing in a new plant to increase production of DRAM, whose spot prices rose 61 percent last year on increased demand from Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co.
EU fines Siemens 396.6 million
European authorities fined Siemens AG, Areva SA, Alstom SA, Schneider Electric SA and six competitors 750.7 million euros (US$976.6 million) for fixing prices of electricity transmission gear.
Siemens, Europe's biggest engineering company, received the biggest fine of 396.6 million euros, said the European Commission, the EU's Brussels-based antitrust authority, in a statement yesterday.
The agency also fined Japan's Hitachi Ltd 51.8 million euros, Mitsubishi Electric Corp 118.6 million euros, Toshiba Corp 90.9 million euros and Austria's VA Technologie AG, which Siemens bought in 2005, 22 million euros.
"The commission has put an end to a cartel which has cheated public utility companies and consumers for more than 16 years," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in the statement.
The total penalty is the second-highest imposed by the commission for a cartel.
TAITRA plans banana workshop
The semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is planning to organize a workshop next week on the country's banana exports to Japan, its most important market for the fruit, TAITRA officials said yesterday.
Taiwan sold 14,500 tonnes of bananas to Japan last year, representing a 46.98 percent year-on-year growth. There was still ample room to expand banana exports, the officials said.
According to statistics, the total value of the nation's fresh fruit exports reached NT$34.32 million (US$1.04 million) last year, with 54 percent shipped to Japan, TAITRA officials said, noting that banana made up the bulk.
The workshop is scheduled to open Feb. 1 at the TAITRA office in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, and Japanese importers have been invited to attend.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar traded higher against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.140 to close at NT$32.807 on the Taipei Forex Inc.
Turnover was US$1.104 billion.
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
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