MSCI announces index changes
Index compiler Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Barra yesterday announced changes to the MSCI Global Investable Market Value and Growth Indices starting next month.
Global investors usually track MSCI indexes to make necessary adjustments in their investment portfolios.
In its latest quarterly index review, which was revealed in a press release yesterday, MSCI Barra announced no changes of Taiwanese stocks in its index series.
In the Asia-Pacific region, only China's Country Garden Holdings (碧桂園控股) was added into the MSCI index series, while Transmile Group (金鵬集團) from Malaysia will be deleted, the statement said.
Still, after the quarterly index adjustment, Taiwan's weighting decreases to 18.07 percent from 18.16 percent, South Korea's weighting drops to 23.99 percent from 24.16 percent, and China's weighting increases to 19.67 percent from 19.11 percent.
Investments top NT$880m
The nation has attracted 885 investments this year worth NT$881.62 billion (US$26.7 million) as of the end of last month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement yesterday. The figure is 87.59 percent of the NT$1.01 trillion goal for this year, up from NT$903.2 billion last year, the ministry said.
The investments were mainly in the manufacturing industry as usual, the statement said. Foreign investment in high-end manufacturing will especially increase in the future, it said.
The government is also keen to invite foreign enterprises to set up research and development centers to help upgrade local industries. For this year, the ministry plans to approve more than five applications for research and development centers, it said.
The centers, which the ministry expects to carry out more than 60 projects and transfer 30 technologies to local companies, are expected to inject US$500 million in Taiwan, the ministry said.
UMC shuffles vice chairman
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said vice chairman Peter Chang (張崇德) would leave his post as part of a broader restructuring of its management team as it struggles to cope with the challenges of the semiconductor industry.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker will hire Chang, 61, as a senior consultant after he leaves the job he served for six years.
UMC yesterday promoted executive vice president Sun Shih-wei (孫世偉) to a newly created position, chief operating official,supervising operations at 12-inch chip plants. Vice president Chen Wen-yang (陳文洋) was promoted to senior vice president in charge of 8-inch and 6-inch chip factories.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar rose by the most in more than a year on speculation the central bank was buying the currency.
The local currency's advance yesterday erased the week's losses. A weaker NT dollar, down 1.3 percent this year, is boosting inflation and the cost of imported goods.
"It's quite possible there's been some central bank action, as they're trying to keep a lid on it," said Sean Callow, senior foreign-exchange strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in Singapore. "They also don't want the Taiwan dollar simply to be a one-way bet of depreciation."
The NT dollar surged NT$0.197 or 0.6 percent yesterday, the most since June 30 last year. The currency rose 0.1 percent during the week to NT$32.931, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
Turnover was US$1.055 billion yesterday, compared with US$1.26 billion the previous session.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)