Shares of motherboard maker Asrock Inc (華擎) rallied 8.4 percent during its debut on the main bourse, defying the benchmark TAIEX's 3.90 percent loss following the plunge in the US overnight on growing subprime mortgage concerns.
Asrock stock rose NT$21 to NT$271 from its listing price of NT$250 per share. The 7 percent daily limit does not apply to the trading of new shares in the first five sessions. Asrock shares were traded on the smaller Emerging Stock Market (
Asrock is a motherboard brand owned by the world's biggest motherboard maker Asustek Computer Inc (
But, the five-year-old company said last week that it planned to shift its focus to middle-range and high-end products to boost profits as growth in the low-end area slows amid rising competition from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
SinoPac Securities Corp (
"Asrock will gain a new driving force after tapping into middle-range and high-end products, which account for 60 percent of the total unit sales of the motherboard industry," SinoPac Securities said in the report published on Monday.
Asrock plans to produce 10 percent to 15 percent more motherboards next year from this year's goal of 7 million units, based on replacement demand for the Vista system and rising demand in the emerging markets, chairman Ted Hsu (
In the first nine months of the year, Asrock's earnings inched up by nearly 4 percent to NT$1.39 billion, compared to NT$1.34 billion a year ago.
On Tuesday it said it had raised NT$2.86 billion by issuing 11.44 million new common shares during the initial public offering. Asrock now has around 102 million shares in issue.
Shares in Taiwan closed at a new high yesterday, the first trading day of the new year, as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to break records amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 386.21 points, or 1.33 percent, at 29,349.81, with turnover totaling NT$648.844 billion (US$20.65 billion). “Judging from a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar, I think foreign institutional investors returned from the holidays and brought funds into the local market,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said. “Foreign investors just rebuilt their positions with TSMC as their top target,
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
H200 CHIPS: A source said that Nvidia has asked the Taiwanese company to begin production of additional chips and work is expected to start in the second quarter Nvidia Corp is scrambling to meet demand for its H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Chinese technology companies and has approached contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to ramp up production, sources said. Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips for this year, while Nvidia holds just 700,000 units in stock, two of the people said. The exact additional volume Nvidia intends to order from TSMC remains unclear, they said. A third source said that Nvidia has asked TSMC to begin production of the additional chips and work is expected to start in the second
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”