High-tech stocks push TAIEX up
A falling New Taiwan dollar yesterday helped the local stock market recoup early losses amid concerns over eurozone debt problems, as investors picked up select high-tech stocks on hopes they would cut foreign exchange losses, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 11.97 points, or 0.16 percent, at 7,492.85, after moving between 7,389.39 and 7,544.88, on turnover of NT$101.03 billion (US$3.37 billion).
“Many investors are hoping a falling [New] Taiwan dollar will enhance the local high-tech sector’s global competitiveness at a time when demand in the world has been hampered by the debt crisis in Europe,” Mega Securities (兆豐證券) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
However, turnover remained moderate, indicating many investors remained on the sidelines because they were wary of the European debt problems, Huang said.
ASE to buy back common shares
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), plans to buy back 30 million common shares, or 0.44 percent, of total outstanding shares to protect shareholders’ interests, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The company plans to buy back shares at between NT$22 and NT$40 each from today to Nov. 20, it said.
Taipei land deals on plate
Shihlin Development Co (士林開發) sold land for NT$551 million and expects to book a gain of NT$200 million from the transaction, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Taiwan Tea Corp (台灣農林) plans to buy commercial property in Taipei for NT$5.12 billion, the company said in a statement to the local stock exchange, while Delpha Construction Co (大華建設) bought land in the capital for NT$1.1 billion yesterday to develop property, according to a separate exchange filing.
LCY to invest more in unit
LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化學) plans to invest an additional NT$1.72 billion in polysilicon supplier unit Taiwan Polysilicon Corp (福聚太陽能), the chemical producer said in a statement yesterday.
Taiwan Polysilicon was established in 2007 with a paid-in capital of NT$6 billion. Its major shareholders include LCY Chemical, which owns a 63.78 percent stake, and 11.97 percent by Everlight Electronics Co (億光電子).
TC Bank president resigns
Ta Chong Bank Ltd (TC Bank, 大眾銀行) president Edmund Koh (許健洲) resigned for personal reasons and will be returning to Singapore, the Taipei-based lender said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Koh will continue to lead the bank until early next year, the statement said.
MOF urges more towel action
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday that anti-dumping measures against Chinese towel makers should continue after it finished an investigation into the case.
The ministry would request the Ministry of Economic Affairs to conduct a second round of investigations. The MOF will make a final decision by year-end based on all the investigation results.
The MOF’s tariff committee levied a 204.1 percent anti-dumping tax on China-made towels for five years, which ended in June, but the levy will continue before a final decision is made, it said.
NT dollar down on Italy woes
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US currency yesterday, declining NT$0.108 to close at NT$29.888 on escalating concerns over the strength of the euro after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Italy’s credit rating, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$1.2 billion 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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by