TAIEX rises on bargain hunting
The TAIEX closed up 0.63 percent yesterday after bargain hunters turned their attention to big caps, helping the index overcome resistance at the 8,200 mark, dealers said.
The benchmark index rose 51.45 points to close at 8,240.89, after moving between 8,218.75 and 8,286.93 on turnover of NT$143.42 billion (US$4.57 billion).
Aided by Wall Street’s gains overnight, the local bourse opened up 0.64 percent, and the momentum was maintained by buying into large caps, especially old economy stocks, to take advantage of their low valuations, dealers said.
A total of 2,494 stocks closed up, 1,414 finished down and 364 were unchanged.
Inventec to invest in solar cells
Inventec Corp (英業達), a leading Taiwanese contract notebook computer maker, said yesterday it would invest at least NT$3 billion to set up a solar cell unit.
Inventec said in a statement it was setting up the new venture to diversify its business and spur growth as profit margins in the contract computer-manufacturing sector shrink.
The company said it would team up with cellphone maker Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達), electronic dictionary maker Inventec Besta Co (無敵科技), Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) and other unspecified investors for the solar cell venture.
Meanwhile, Gigastorage Corp’s (國碩) board of directors approved a plan to invest up to NT$750 million to build plants to produce solar-cell wafers, the maker of compact discs said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The investment will come from its own funds and syndicated loans, according to the statement.
TSMC’s upgrade approved
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has approved Taiwan -Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) application to upgrade its chip production technologies in its plant in Shanghai, China, to 0.18 micron process technology from 0.13 micron, officials at the Investment Commission said yesterday.
TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, will become the first Taiwanese chipmaker to use a relatively advanced technology in their Chinese investment after the government relaxed the investment restriction in February.
Officials said the ministry gave its permission because the Shanghai plant was 100-percent owned by TSMC and the chipmaker agreed to fund the technology migration with the Chinese subsidiary’s retained earnings, without resorting to funds from Taiwan.
The ministry yesterday also gave the go-ahead to ASE Test Inc (福雷電子), a subsidiary of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光), to invest US$100 million in its Shanghai plant.
NT rise capped by ‘intervention’
The New Taiwan dollar rose to its highest level in more than two years before surrendering half of the day’s gains on suspected intervention by the central bank.
The bank bought US dollars in late trading, according to two traders familiar with the matter who declined to be identified.
The currency had earlier strengthened by as much as 0.9 percent before a central bank meeting today.
Eleven out of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the bank would raise its benchmark interest rate by 12.5 basis points to 1.5 percent.
The NT dollar closed 0.4 percent higher at NT$31.38 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
It was 0.8 percent stronger two minutes before the end of yesterday’s trading session and earlier touched NT$31.21, the strongest level since August 2008.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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