TAIEX edges up 0.4 percent
The TAIEX closed up 0.4 percent yesterday on cautious buying ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 35.16 points to 8,817.88, on turnover of NT$100.051 billion (US$3.42 billion), the lowest since Nov. 25.
A total of 2,558 stocks closed down, 1,569 finished up and 375 were unchanged.
“There is a strong wait-and-see attitude among investors before the Lunar New Year holiday. Other than institutional investors, there will be only short-term investors, not long-term ones,” said Wu Tong-yang, an assistant manager at Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券).
HTC appoints China manager
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, yesterday announced the appointment of Ray Yam (任偉光) as corporate vice president and head of HTC Communication in China.
Reporting directly to Fred Liu (劉慶東), president of engineering and sales, Yam will be responsible for all sales, marketing and operations for HTC in China.
Prior to joining HTC, Yam held numerous management positions in the mobile industry with LG, Motorola and Nokia.
Cathay Life buys bonds
China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) bought US$20 million of HSBC Bank PLC bonds, the Taipei-based insurer said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
TSMC sales beat forecasts
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of chips, yesterday reported fourth-quarter consolidated revenue of NT$110.1 billion, surpassing analysts’ estimates and its own guidance.
The average of 20 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for sales of NT$108.6 billion, while the company in August forecast revenue of up to NT$109 billion.
“The overall business is good,” Elizabeth Sun (孫又文), head of investor relations, at Hsinchu-based TSMC said without elaborating.
Central bank sells more CDs
The central bank yesterday issued NT$394.6 billion in certificates of deposit (CD), more than the NT$365.75 billion that matured, it said in a statement on its Web site.
The central bank sold 30-day CDs at 0.74 percent, 91-day CDs at 0.78 percent, 182-day CDs at 0.88 percent and 364-day CDs at 0.799 percent, the statement said.
ProMOS, Powerchip deny talks
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) and Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技), said reports of merger talks with Elpida Memory Inc were media speculation, according to statements to the stock exchange yesterday.
Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto reached a broad agreement with ProMOS and Powerchip to join a holding company, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Saturday, citing sources it didn’t name.
Powerchip hasn’t contacted Elpida regarding any merger and ProMOS said the reports are “purely media speculation,” the statements yesterday said.
NT dollar closes unchanged
The NT dollar yesterday pared early gains on speculation that the central bank intervened to slow its appreciation.
The currency was trading almost 2 percent stronger a minute before the market’s close and ended the day unchanged at NT$29.80 against the greenback, Taipei Forex Inc statistics showed.
The central bank has intervened almost every day since last April, according to traders who declined to be identified.
The currency touched NT$29.080 on Dec. 30, its strongest level since October 1997.
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],”