Stimulus plan boosts shares
The TAIEX closed up 1.31 percent yesterday as buying continued, after the legislature passed a stimulus plan last week to boost the local economy, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 75.68 points to 5,857.64 on turnover of NT$148.58 billion (US$4.41 billion).
The market opened 0.56 percent higher and the upside continued, with interest in construction and infrastructure stocks after a NT$149 billion stimulus was approved on Friday to combat the global economic meltdown.
“Investors appeared upbeat because of stimulus plan, expecting the government to do more to prevent the local economy from deteriorating,” Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券) analyst Mars Hsu said.
“It seemed that such optimism overwhelmed fears that the market would pull back on profit-taking after a recent strong showing,” Hsu said.
Since the beginning of last month, the market has risen more than 28 percent.
However, Hsu said investors had better keep alert as the index is approaching strong technical resistance in the 5,900 to 6,000 point range.
“I do not suggest investors chase prices for the moment,” he said.
Large cap China Steel (中鋼) led the gains, up 4.62 percent at NT$26.05 on hopes that the new stimulus plan would lift domestic demand for raw materials for construction, dealers said.
Buying also targeted flat panel makers, which have been benefitting from large orders from China, dealers said.
Chi Mei Optoelectronics (奇美電子) gained 6.67 percent to NT$18.40 and AU Optronics rose 2.62 precent to NT$33.25.
Hon Hai Precision (鴻海精密) rose 5.28 percent to NT$85.80 ahead of an annual general meeting scheduled for Thursday, when investors hope it will announce positive news.
Want Want to raise funds
Want Want China Holdings Ltd (旺旺中國控股), the country’s largest maker of rice cakes, plans to sell US$100 million in Taiwan depositary receipts to draw a wider group of investors, its underwriter said in a statement yesterday.
The company, controlled by billionaire Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), plans to price the shares at between NT$12.50 and NT$15.50 each, Grand Cathay Securities Corp (大華證券) said in the statement. The final price for the shares, which will start trading on April 28, will be decided at a later date.
The Shanghai-based company will be the first to raise funds by issuing shares in Taiwan after the government eased restrictions to boost the capital markets last year. The government said in July it would scrap a rule that bans companies with major stakeholders from China from selling shares on the stock exchange.
“Want Want has ample liquidity, so the main reason for returning to Taiwan to list is to support the Taiwanese government’s policy,” the underwriter said.
The Taiwan listing also offers cost-savings and tax benefits for its investors, it said.
AU unit buys bonds
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world’s third-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, said a wholly owned unit bought NT$500 million (US$14.8 million) in Forhouse Corp convertible bonds in a private placement, the Hsinchu-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Electronics firm denies report
Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic Co (廈華集團) denied a newspaper report that said it may sell assets to TPV Technology Ltd (冠捷科技), a filing yesterday to Shanghai’s stock exchange said. Chunghwa Picture Tubes Co (華映), Xiamen Overseas’ biggest shareholder, is not in talks with TPV, the statement said.
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
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)
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