Following strong earnings reports released last week by major US companies Apple Inc, IBM Corp, Intel Corp and AMD, investors are preparing for several heavyweight local companies to release their quarterly results this week as equity strategists suggested Taiwanese stocks may continue a rebound from last week.
In the semiconductor sector, MediaTek Inc (聯發科), Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (矽品精密) and Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) will hold their shareholder meetings on Wednesday, followed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) and Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) on Thursday. Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體) on Friday.
Panel makers AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) will face investors on Wednesday while E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) will take the stage on Thursday and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) will release its results and outlook on Friday.
Meanwhile, smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) is scheduled to shed light on the latest developments in the smartphone sector and its patent fight with Apple on Friday.
The TAIEX ended 2.22 percent higher last week than the previous week at 8,765.32 points, following a 2 percent decline in the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The local bourse saw an average daily turnover of about NT$122.88 billion (US$4.26 billion) last week, higher than the NT$113.84 billion in the previous week, the exchange’s data showed.
Market strategists said that a new bailout plan for the troubled Greek economy and strong earnings reports by major US technology companies helped the TAIEX end last week with a gain of 190.41 points, keeping the benchmark index above its 240-day moving average (8,500).
“The TAIEX would likely test its 60-day moving average [8,800] this week following the recent recovery,” said Eric Li (李俊毅), a fund manager at Allianz Global Investors Taiwan Ltd (德盛安聯投信), on Friday.
Taishin Investment Trust Co (台新投信) also maintains a bullish view on the local bourse in the near term on expectations of continuous support by the government--run Labor Pension Fund (勞退基金) and a strong showing on Wall Street.
“Approximately NT$12 billion from the Labor Pension Fund will soon be appropriated for investment in the stock market,” Kuo Chien-cheng (郭建成), a fund manager at Taishin Investment, said in a note on Friday.
The supervisory committee of the pension fund announced on June 30 that it was planning to entrust six fund companies to manage about NT$30 billion on the domestic stock market.
The authorization allows these brokers to buy and sell securities on the supervisory committee’s behalf for a period of four years and the mandates will be granted by the end of next month.
However, Chen Ming-xun (陳明勛), a fund manager at -Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise Co (保德信投信), said local stocks could stage a range-bound consolidation in the short term because of external uncertainties, including the US debt-ceiling debacle, the economic recovery in Europe and local technolgy firms’ third-quarter outlook.
“Still, as both local and foreign institutional investors have shown signs of buying stocks to take advantage of low valuations, the TAIEX is likely to gradually move higher in the second half ahead of the presidential and legislative elections next year,” Chen said on Friday.
This week, the market will cautiously weigh the results of corporate earnings from a slew of technology companies at home and abroad as well as their sales guidance for the coming quarters, another analyst said.
“There was a clear message from earnings reports released by Apple, Intel and Qualcomm that the market for consumer electronics has not expanded as much as expected, although Apple did have a larger slice of the pie,” Henry Chen (陳志恆), an investment research head at KBC Concord Asset Management Co (康和比聯投信), said in an e-mailed statement.
“[This] means Taiwanese electronics manufacturers will have a hard time in the second half if they are not part of Apple’s supply chain,” he said.
“Those suppliers of Apple products are likely to encounter margin pressure in the face of the US company’s demand for lower prices,” Henry Chen said.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day