Bourse closes higher
The TAIEX closed up 0.47 percent yesterday on a technical rebound, led by the old economy sector, but the gains were limited ahead of technical resistance around the 7,800-point mark, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 36.80 points to 7,784.81 after moving between 7,726.40 and 7,786.23 on turnover of NT$109.11 billion (US$3.41 billion).
The market opened down 0.15 percent on Wall Street’s lackluster performance overnight, but stocks outside the high-tech sector regained momentum to reverse the early downslide, dealers said.
Recent losses suffered by the old economy were largely a result of concerns over Formosa Plastics Group’s (台塑集團) bottom line after a fire broke out over the weekend at an oil refinery of the group’s petrochemical complex in Yunlin County.
A total of 1,815 stocks closed up and 1,527 down with 334 remaining unchanged.
Anti-piracy campaign launched
The Business Software Alliance yesterday announced a new wave of awareness campaigns in Taiwan to reduce software piracy rates.
Starting on Sunday and running until Sept. 15, those who report software abuse in their companies would receive up to NT$1 million in rewards, a statement said.
The alliance is calling on businesses to pay for the legal use of software to respect intellectual property rights.
HTC’s office plan approved
HTC Corp’s (宏達電) board approved a plan to buy an office building in the UK for its subsidiary, the Taoyuan-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday. HTC Europe Co will spend up to £11.3 million (US$17.1 million) on the office, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Life Insurance Co’s (台灣人壽) board approved a plan to sell 58 million preferred shares at NT$35 apiece, the Taipei-based life insurer said in a separate exchange filing yesterday.
Asustek’s exports unaffected
Local PC maker Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) said yesterday that chipmaker Rambus Inc’s patent lawsuit with nVidia Inc would not impact its shipments to the US, according to a company statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Asustek said Rambus promised to solve the dispute as soon as possible and it has paid a guarantee fund for its clients to prevent customers’ products being banned from import into the US.
Asustek said only part of its products are equipped with Rambus chips and other suppliers are available to replace Rambus in supplying similar chips.
SinoPac offers counseling
SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) announced yesterday that it signed an agreement with Shanghai Securities Co (上海證券) to offer the Chinese brokerage management counseling services, SinoPac said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on SinoPac Holdings Co (永豐金控), the parent company of SinoPac Securities, to stable from negative, and affirmed the BBB- long-term and A-3 short-term counterparty credit ratings on the company, S&P said in a separate statement yesterday.
The ratings agency also revised the outlook on Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) to stable from negative and affirmed the BBB long-term and A-2 short-term counterparty credit ratings and the C+ bank fundamental strength rating on the bank.
Local currency strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar strengthened against the US dollar yesterday, gaining NT$0.02 to close at NT$32.070.
Turnover totaled US$504 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
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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