Shares up 0.17 percent
Shares closed 0.17 percent higher yesterday with late profit-taking shaving gains made on hopes for a US interest rate cut when the Federal Reserve meets next week, dealers said.
Investors in early trade followed the pace set by Wall Street but technical resistance halted the market's rise and prompted investors to take profits before trading ended, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 15 points at 9,018.12, off a high of 9,084.97 and a low of 9,011.26. Turnover was NT$134.25 billion (US$4.07 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 892 to 844, with 256 stocks unchanged.
Macronix building new factory
Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), which makes chips for customers including Nintendo Co, said it is considering building a new semiconductor factory.
Chairman Miin Wu (吳敏求), who spoke to reporters in Taipei yesterday, declined to elaborate on details such as the timing or the investment amount.
The Hsinchu-based company said in May it was in talks with Qimonda AG to jointly develop flash memory chips.
Epistar at six-week high on TSE
Epistar Corp (晶元光電), the nation's largest maker of light-emitting diodes (LED) used in mobile phones, climbed to a six-week high on the Taipei stock exchange after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported LED demand was outstripping supply.
The company's shares jumped by the 7 percent daily limit to NT$161.50, closing at their highest level since July 31.
Epistar's production capacity trails orders by 30 percent to 40 percent, the newspaper reported, citing Lee Biing-jye (李秉傑), chairman of the Hsinchu-based company. The shortage could last until April, the report said.
LEDs are used as backlights in screens of mobile phones, laptop computers, flat-screen TVs and traffic lights. This week, Epistar reported last month sales rose 69 percent to NT$955 million.
Taipower hires new engineers
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said it hired E&C Engineering Corp to supply engineers and provide other staff after a Shaw Group Inc subsidiary ended its contract to advise on construction of the country's fourth nuclear power plant.
E&C Engineering, a unit of Taipei-based CTCI Corp (中鼎工程), has sent 60 engineers and 10 clerks to assist Taipower, Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元), the state-run utility's chief engineer, said by telephone.
Taipower's fourth nuclear power plant is 68 percent complete and is intended to help ease an electricity shortage in the north. Stone & Webster Inc has provided design and engineering support for the plant scheduled to start in 2009. The Taipei-based utility's employees will take over much of the work that needs to done in the wake of the Shaw Group unit's departure.
Foxconn misses profit goal
Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股), the world's biggest contract manufacturer of mobile phones, fell to its lowest point in more than a year in Hong Kong trading after posting first-half profit that missed analysts' estimates.
Foxconn shares declined 3.9 percent to HK$19.46 (US$2.50), the lowest close since Aug. 24 last year. The Shenzhen-based company yesterday reported first-half profit rose 7.4 percent to US$324 million, missing the median estimate of US$370 million of three analysts.
The company's earnings fell after sales slumped at Motorola Inc, its biggest customer. Foxconn, the worst-performing stock on the Hang Seng Index this year after it doubled last year, seeks more orders from Nokia Oyj and Sony Ericsson Communications Ltd to cut its reliance on the US company.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six