Earnings boost index
Taiwanese shares closed 0.92 percent higher yesterday, buoyed by a rise in electronics stocks thanks to some positive earnings reports, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 42.78 points to close at 4,671.01 on turnover of NT$86.48 billion (US$2.5 billion). Gainers outnumbered losers 1,212 to 501, while 171 stocks were unchanged.
Analysts said the market also got a boost from ample liquidity after the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates last month following a downturn in the domestic economy.
“Some shares picked up strength after reports of a rise in their February sales,” Allen Lin of Concord Securities (康和證券) said.
Bank warns speculators
The central bank said it would enter the currency market when needed to “maintain order” if there were “irregularities” in foreign-exchange trading.
The New Taiwan dollar has been “relatively stable” compared with other regional currencies, central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said in a report to be presented to the legislature tomorrow.
“The influence of irregularities such as hot money and speculative motives result in large moves that are not a reflection of economic fundamentals,” Perng said in the report. “Therefore, the central bank must enter the market at an appropriate time and make adjustments to maintain order.”
The central bank reiterated its policy of maintaining a looser monetary environment to stimulate the economy because of the global slowdown. The bank cut its key rate to a low 1.25 percent last month and may make further reductions after the economy shrank the most in more than 50 years.
CPC eyes biotech market
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it aimed to increase sales of biotechnology products, including skin and healthcare products, by more than 20 percent to NT$100 million (US$2.89 million) this year by expanding its sales channels.
To meet its goal, the company said it would increase its product presence in pharmacies, drug stores and convenience stores, in addition to selling the products through some 600 directly operated gas stations.
“The plan is to expand our external channels,” said Hsu Bor-sung (�?, executive manager of CPC’s solvent and chemical business division.
The company also plans to sell its biotechnology products to China, India and Southeast Asia, he said, without elaborating.
Server shipments fall: report
Asia-Pacific server shipments fell for the first time in nearly seven years in the fourth quarter of last year as the global economic slump hit spending on technology products, market intelligence firm Gartner said in a report yesterday.
Shipments in the last quarter dropped 5.8 percent year-on-year to 349,135 units, and revenues tumbled 14.8 percent to US$1.91 billion, Gartner said.
It was the first decline for the region’s server market following 27 quarters of consecutive growth, the firm said.
Ex-Citigroup exec joins Yuanta
Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) yesterday announced the appointment of Sam Lee (李明山), formerly a managing director of Citigroup Global Markets, as executive vice president and head of its newly formed investment and corporate bank group for the Greater China region.
Yuanta said Lee’s appointment should help the company in its goal of becoming a leading investment bank in the region. The appointment will take effect in early May, it said in the press statement.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by