Typhoon mutes stock rally
Taiwanese shares closed up 0.21 percent yesterday as the impact from the nation’s worst flooding in 50 years, caused by Typhoon Morakot, hit gains from a Wall Street rally, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 14.22 points to 6,882.87 on turnover of NT$99.40 billion (US$3.03 billion).
“Despite the gains, buying was very limited on fears that the serious flooding will affect the domestic economy,” Concord Securities (康和證券) analyst Allen Lin said.
Lin said the reduced daily turnover was evidence that investors were reluctant to enter the market.
Returning to the market yesterday after Morakot caused trading to be suspended on Friday, traders were lifted by better-than-expected jobs data out of the US before the weekend.
Against the uptrend, tourism stocks came under pressure as investors feared the flooding would impact on revenue, dealers said.
Lin said that while the broader market had fallen into a consolidation mode, investors were likely to make a quick profit by investing in construction stocks.
MediaTek near two-year high
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) rose to its highest level in almost two years in Taipei trading after Taiwan’s largest chip designer reported record monthly sales for last month.
The stock gained 4.7 percent to close at NT$495, the highest since Nov. 20, 2007, while the benchmark TAIEX index added 0.21 percent.
“The company has outperformed the entire semiconductor industry and is set to expand in the third quarter because of its presence in the emerging market and traditional strong sales in the third quarter,” said Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) analyst George Chang (張家麒), who rates the firm at “buy.”
Mediatek said July consolidated sales climbed 26 percent to NT$10.8 billion (US$329 million), compared with the same month a year earlier. Sales were the highest since the company began recording consolidated sales in 2007, according to data on its Web site.
Sales surge cheers Compal
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s second-largest maker of notebook computers, advanced the most in two weeks after it said July sales surged.
Compal Electronics rose 3.1 percent to close at NT$31.2, the most since July 28, after the benchmark TAIEX index added 0.21 percent.
The company reported on Friday that sales last month surged 52 percent to NT$52.32 billion from a year earlier and gained 24 percent from June’s NT$42.20 billion.
“Yes, the shares are moving because of the sales,” said Steven Tseng (曾續良), an analyst at ABN Amro Holding NV, who has a “hold” on Compal. “We didn’t expect the increase to be this big compared with June.”
Fubon to sell GDRs
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金), Taiwan’s second-largest listed financial services firm, said in an exchange filing that its board approved plans to raise as much as US$900 million from the sale of global depositary receipts (GDRs).
Tax take announced
The government collected NT$65.3 billion (US$2 billion) in tax revenue last month, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Business income tax rose NT$1.9 billion year-on-year to NT$3.3 billion last month, while business tax decreased NT$4.7 billion to NT$43.3 billion, the report showed. Commodity tax gained NT$1.2 billion to NT$11.1 billion from the same period last year, when the levy was cut amid surging fuel costs, the report said.
In total, the government collected NT$632.4 billion in tax in the first seven months, or 84.9 percent of the target, it said. The ministry said it would collect NT$16.1 billion in income tax next month, keeping the shortfall at NT$96.4 billion.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San