■ Shares remain flat
Shares closed with little change yesterday as investors opted to lock in profits after early gains that were inspired by a strong Wall Street performance overnight, dealers said.
The TAIEX slipped 1.26 points to 7,736.20, on a turnover of NT$103.63 billion (US$3.13 billion).
Decliners led risers 670 to 428, with 208 stocks unchanged.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar lost ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.017 to close at NT$33.125.
■ CPC cuts wholesale gas prices
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) yesterday announced cuts to wholesale gasoline prices by NT$0.5 per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter to reflect the declining oil prices. The new rates went into effective at 12am this morning.
Smaller rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) later said it would lower its prices to match CPC Taiwan's, effective 2am today.
■ ASE to supply Qimonda AG
The biggest chip packager in the world, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), said in a statement yesterday that it will supply Qimonda AG with volume quantities of substrate solutions for the production of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips for computers and server markets.
ASE Electronics Inc (日月光電子), affiliated with ASE, will be one of Qimonda's strategic substrate suppliers for the German company's chip production facilities worldwide, the statement said.
■ KFC to change tray mat papers
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants have decided to change the tray mat papers in their 140 outlets in response to a survey released by the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday over fluorescence concerns.
The survey showed that six fast-food chains, including McDonald's, KFC, Burger King and Mos Burger, and three hot pot places were found to use tray mats or placemats that contain fluorescent whitening agents, in violation of Article 5 of the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).
The foundation worried that consumers might ingest the chemical substance since many prefer placing French fries and tomato sauce on the papers.
McDonald's and Burger King said they will conduct their own examinations and decide how to respond after the results are known.
■ Taipei 101 releases earnings
The Taipei 101 Observatory has generated more than NT$800 million (US$24 million) in total revenue from the sale of entrance tickets and souvenirs since opening two years ago, a Taipei 101 executive said yesterday.
Taipei 101's assistant vice president Michael Liu (劉家豪) said that about NT$700 million in revenue came from the sale of more than 2 million tickets.
Another NT$100 million was due to sales of more than 250 kinds of souvenirs, including NT$2 million from 95 newly presented items of the "Damper Baby" series developed in cooperation with Japan's Sanrio Co.
Taipei 101 may launch its own online souvenir shop in the second half of this year to test the overseas market, Liu said.
■ BenQ sells 105 million shares
Taiwanese electronics maker BenQ Corp (明基) yesterday said it sold 105 million shares of fixed company Taiwan Fixed Network Co (台灣固網) for NT$871.5 million as part of its efforts to raise capital to repay loans. The company would book NT$178.5 million in losses from the deal. Its debt to asset ratio rose slightly to 42.75 percent last quarter.
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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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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