TAIEX dragged down by US
The TAIEX fell 2.65 percent yesterday, dragged down by a drop of more than 2 percent on Wall Street on Friday after the US job market stalled last month, fueling concern the world’s largest economy might be headed toward recession.
The index closed down 205.49 points at 7,551.57 on turnover of NT$88.347 billion (US$3.05 billion).
All of the eight main sectors closed down, with construction suffering the heaviest losses, finishing down 3.97 percent.
Financials lost 3.51 percent, plastics and chemicals fell 2.55 percent and foodstuffs closed down 2.47 percent.
Cement lost 1.72 percent, textiles shed 1.75 percent and pulp and paper fell 1.86 percent.
A total of 1,048 stocks closed up, 3,124 were down and 250 were unchanged.
DRAM chip stocks plunge
The nation’s top two DRAM chip manufacturers yesterday saw their shares plunge to their daily limit, with Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) dropping 6.8 percent to NT$4.25, while Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) fell by the same percentage to NT$2.19.
Nanya and Powerchip were downgraded to “full-delivery stocks” by the Taiwan Stock Exchange and GRETAI Securities Market respectively, barring the trading of their shares using short-selling or margin trading, because their book values per share had fallen below the regulatory requirement of NT$5.
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the nation’s third-largest DRAM chipmaker, closed down 5.56 percent at NT$0.34.
The firm will suspend trading of its shares on the GRETAI Securities Market today after it failed to submit its second-quarter financial statements to the stock exchange by the end of last month.
Yamaha certified for rebate
Buyers of about 7,700 electric scooters have applied with the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the NT$8,000 or NT$11,000 cash rebates since 2009, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
Japan’s Yamaha Motor Corp is the latest company — and the first foreign brand — certified by the ministry under the rebate program to encourage the adoption of green vehicles.
That makes Yamaha’s ED06 electric scooter the 13th model certified by the ministry. The other 12 are from seven local firms: Sanyang Industry Co (三陽工業), E-Ton Power Tech Co (益通動能科技), Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), China Motors Corp (中華汽車), EVT Technology Co (易維特科技), Kentfa Advanced Technology Corp (見發先進科技) and DK City Corp (東庚企業).
ITRI to woo foreign talent
The head of the nation’s top technical institute said economic downturns in the West and Japan provide the country an opportunity to lure talent from abroad to develop the high-tech sector.
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) chairman Tsay Ching-yen (蔡清彥) said the institute would try to recruit recent graduates and experienced tech workers to come to Taiwan.
Tsay told the Chinese-language Economic Daily News in a report yesterday that the local technology industry was suffering from a dearth of talent because not enough young Taiwanese study in top-flight foreign universities.
The nation’s once robust PC sales are lagging in the face of competition from products like Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads, and officials are increasingly pushing technological innovation.
NT dollar drops
The New Taiwan dollar fell NT$0.046 to close at NT$29.071 against the US dollar yesterday on turnover of US$635 million.
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