TAIEX shares down slightly
Share prices closed down 0.29 percent yesterday on mild profit taking after a strong showing in the previous session, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 22.88 points to 7,612.68, after moving between 7,610.62 and 7,639.66, on turnover of NT$76.55 billion (US$2.41 billion).
The market opened down 0.06 percent and continued to move lower as investors took hints from a lackluster performance on Wall Street overnight, dealers said.
A total of 1,427 stocks closed down, 1,364 rose and 441 stocks remained unchanged.
ITRI touts navigation software
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) yesterday said it had successfully developed software that will help cyclists navigate their routes with enhanced security.
ITRI has devised a software application that offers GPS, Google Maps and handset features, which cyclists can download into their mobile devices, or send to bicycle makers to incorporate into their bikes, according to a statement.
With the solution, cyclists are able to keep track of the positions of their peers during their cycling trip, therefore ensuring the team’s safety in case someone detours or gets lost.
The project was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs at the beginning of this year. ITRI said the software is now commercially mature for deployment and it is currently in talks with bicycle makers such as Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) for possible partnership.
Vice minister visits Detroit
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) is visiting Detroit as head of a 60-member electric vehicle industry delegation.
The main purpose of Hwang’s trip has been to preside over the opening of the two-day Taiwan Automotive International Forum and Exhibition 2010 in the US city, which began on Monday, according to a statement released that day by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago.
The trade show brought together 28 automakers and suppliers from Taiwan, with 49 innovative products and 59 Taiwan-developed technologies on display.
TSMC plans solar cell plant
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest maker of chips designed by other companies, plans to build a solar cell plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), spokesman Tzeng Jin-hao (曾晉皓) said by phone yesterday, confirming a report by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News earlier yesterday.
Tzeng declined to comment on investment value or when the plant would start production.
Fubon Securities chairman quits
The board of Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) is slated to approve the resignation of its chairman David Chang (張果軍) on Friday, the securities firm confirmed in an exchange filing yesterday in response to a media report.
Chang will remain as an adviser to parent Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) although his resignation at the subsidiary will take effect on the same day, following a board approval, it added.
Due to his own career plans and choice for a flexible working schedule, Chang tendered his resignation, the firm’s filing said, shrugging off speculation that he was at odds with the next chairman, Gordon Yeh (葉公亮).
NT dollar sheds NT$0.095
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.095 to close at the day’s low of NT$32.094.
Turnover totaled US$814 million during the trading session.
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
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”