TAIEX gains 1.53 percent
Share prices closed up 1.53 percent yesterday on a technical rebound after overnight gains on Wall Street, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 117.16 points to 7,795.07 on turnover of NT$134.75 billion (US$4.18 billion).
Gainers led losers 2,037 to 710 with 215 stocks unchanged.
The market opened higher as investors took cues from US shares and the momentum accelerated until the end of the session with select old-economy stocks in focus, dealers said.
“Today’s performance was better than expected, in particular after yesterday’s dive had technically hurt the market,” TLG Asset Management (台壽保投信) analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said.
Profit-taking sent the market down 1.53 percent on Thursday.
However, Shih said, the TAIEX failed to breach the nearest resistance at 7,800 points without a significant expansion in daily turnover.
“Many institutional investors remained cautious. They are still waiting for further corrections before picking up bargains,” Shih said.
Warrants and stocks separated
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) plans to separate the trading of warrants from stocks by creating a separate trading platform, the Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday, citing chairman Schive Chi (薛琦).
The stock exchange regulator also plans to introduce callable bear and bull contracts, structured products that track the performance of an underlying asset, on the warrants trading platform next year, the paper cited Schive as saying.
Central bank sells bonds
Taiwan’s government sold NT$40 billion of 10-year bonds at a yield of 1.46 percent at an auction, the central bank said.
Investors submitted bids for 1.68 times the amount of 2019 notes on offer, a statement from the central bank said. The so-called bid-cover ratio was 1.72 times in the previous sale of the same bonds on Sept. 4. The notes were sold to yield 1.494 percent in September.
HannStar to buy Unity stake
Local flat-panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday said its board approved a plan to buy 30 million shares of local LED chipmaker Unity Opto Technology Co Ltd (東貝光電) for NT$1.21 billion via a private placement to meet rapidly-growing demand for panels using LED backlight.
HannStar will obtain a 9 percent stake in Unity Opto, which is also the biggest LED chip supplier of the panel maker.
Unity Opto plans to issue 50 million new common shares priced at NT$40.24 per share.
Middle East Trade Week opens
Middle East Trade Week, organized by the semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), opened yesterday, attracting more than 30 buyers from five Middle Eastern countries.
Ali Khorram, the deputy director for international affairs of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Mines, attended the opening ceremony.
The foreign buyers were expected to purchase approximately US$30 million in Taiwanese-made products at a procurement workshop that took place following the opening ceremony, TAITRA said.
Taiwanese businesses have sold nearly US$400 million in products to Middle East countries this year, a TAITRA official said.
Local currency advances
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.03 to close at NT$32.278. Turnover was US$701 million.
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
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
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure