Share prices close higher
Share prices closed higher yesterday with the TAIEX, the market’s key barometer, moving up 96.46 points, or 1.27 percent, to close at 7,666,26.
The local bourse opened at 7,659.76 and fluctuated between 7,694.89 and 7.618 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$90.75 billion (US$2.83 billion).
All eight major stock categories gained ground, with textile issues moving up the most at 2.4 percent, followed by food shares at 1.8 percent.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors bought a net NT$10.89 billion in shares.
Forex reserves grow US$2bn
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to a record high of US$352.73 billion at the end of last month, posting an increase of US$2.02 billion from the figure recorded in January, the central bank said yesterday.
“The main factor behind last month’s increase was returns from foreign exchange reserves management,” Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源), director-general of the central bank’s department of foreign exchange, told a media briefing.
Taiwan remained among the world’s top four in terms of the amount of foreign exchange reserves, tailing China, Japan and Russia, Lin said, adding that the figure rose for the 16th consecutive month.
China’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$2.39 trillion at the end of December, up US$126.6 billion from last September while that of Japan increased US$4.5 billion in January, up from US$99.6 billion recorded in December, the central bank data showed.
Fab spending could jump
Worldwide spending on fab projects — including construction, facilities and equipment — could grow by 88 percent to US$30.9 billion this year, as foundry and memory companies beef up capital spending in view of the recovering economy, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International.
This growth is adjusted upward from its earlier forecast of more than 60 percent, the industry association said in a statement yesterday.
However, total spending this year will still be substantially lower than the US$46 billion spent in 2007, the statement said.
For Taiwan, total spending in fab projects would double from last year, it said, adding that 27 fabs around the world were hit by financial crisis and closed last year including 11 units of 8-inch fabs and a 12-inch fab.
SinoPac income grows
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) yesterday reported a 35 percent year-on-year growth in net income for last month to NT$251 million, or NT$0.04 per share, the company said in a press statement.
The main driver for last month’s earnings was returns from the company’s long-term investments including NT$245 million made by its banking arm Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), the statement said.
Meanwhile, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) yesterday reported NT$601 million in net incomes for last month after setting aside a reserve provision of NT$94 million, the bank yesterday said in a press statement.
NT dollar pares weekly gain
The New Taiwan dollar declined, paring a weekly gain, amid rumors that the central bank intervened to limit appreciation that may hurt exports.
The central bank bought US dollars in the last minute of trading to slow appreciation in the currency, according to two traders who declined to be identified.
The NT dollar fell 0.1 percent to close at NT$32.02 against its US counterpart on turnover of US$738 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”