TAIEX suffers 2.54 percent loss
Taiwanese shares closed 2.54 percent lower yesterday, extending Monday’s losses as investors remained on the sidelines over lingering concerns about the US economy, dealers said. The weighted index closed down 217.96 points at 8,370.00 — the lowest since March 20 — on turnover of NT$117.21 billion (US$3.87 billion).
Decliners led risers 2,192 to 272, with 255 unchanged.
“Selling accelerated after the main index fell below the major support level of 8,500,” Fubon Securities (富邦證券) trader Edward Lien (連又賢) said.
Dealers expected the market to fall further to 8,300 in the next session and to 8,000 by the end of the week.
TSMC posts sales of US$956m
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday it had posted sales of NT$28.99 billion (US$956 million) last month, up 3.2 percent from April.
Sales rose 15.5 percent compared with the same month last year, the world’s largest contract maker of computer chips said.
In the first five months of the year, sales totaled NT$142.31 billion, up 28.3 percent from a year earlier, the firm said.
Shares of TSMC lost NT$1.40 to NT$63.90 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Fubon Bank to purchase shares
Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd (香港富邦), a unit of Taiwan’s Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), agreed to buy a 19.99 percent stake in Xiamen City Commercial Bank (廈門市商銀) for 230 million yuan (US$33 million).
The acquisition will help Fubon provide better customer service in China, Fubon Bank said in a Hong Kong exchange filing yesterday. Fubon Bank will also forgo 20 million yuan in dividends, to be paid to the other shareholders, it said.
The move comes after Taiwan said in March that the nation’s banks could start investing in their Chinese peers through third-country subsidiaries.
Petroleum imports fall
Taiwan’s crude oil imports fell 11 percent from a year earlier in April as prices increased and refiners conducted plant maintenance, the Bureau of Energy said.
Oil imports dropped to 4.05 million kiloliters, or about 25 million barrels, the bureau said. Coal imports climbed 11 percent to 6.23 million tonnes, the island’s energy bureau said yesterday, as China resumed exports.
Oil prices have doubled in the past year, partly on increased demand from India and China. Taiwan imports all its coal and more than 99 percent of its crude oil. Petroleum products account for about half of the island’s energy supply, and coal one-third.
The cost of importing a barrel of crude oil surged 64 percent from a year earlier to US$97.02 in April, the bureau said in an e-mail.
Water prices to stay in place
The state-owned Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水公司) said yesterday that the company will not raise its water prices this year, because it was still making profits.
But the company’s expenditure on power consumption is expected to increase by NT$200 million this year, after Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) raises its electricity rates on July 1, company president Chen Fu-tien (陳福田) said at a press briefing.
Taiwan Water reported an after-tax profit of some NT$250 million last year and posted NT$420 million in profits this year, before taxes, through the end of last month.
NT dollar drops against US
The NT dollar dropped against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.061 to close at NT$30.360.
A total of US$1.05 billion changed hands in the day’s trading.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
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