TAIEX rises 0.21 percent
The TAIEX closed up 16.67 points, or 0.21 percent, at 8,076.61 yesterday,on turnover of NT$81.4 billion (US$2.75 billion).
Gains posted by financial stocks helped the local bourse fend off the impact from falling manufacturing activity in China and the eurozone, with the index closing in positive territory, dealers said.
Buying in financial heavyweights reflected high hopes that Taiwan and China would sign an agreement in the first half of this year to set up a currency settlement mechanism that would allow domestic banks to conduct yuan-denominated businesses, they said.
Wistron profits total NT$2.36bn
Local contract laptop computer maker Wistron Corp (緯創) yesterday said net profits amounted to NT$2.36 billion, or NT$1.13 per share, in the fourth quarter of last year, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
That brought last year’s net income to NT$9.07 billion, or NT$4.36 per share, for last year. Revenues amounted 658.37 billion last year.
Wistron also said the board yesterday approved the company’s plan to issue 62.8 million common shares, or 3 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares, for its employees.
Formosa Epitaxy signs loan deal
LED product supplier Formosa Epitaxy Inc (璨圓光電) yesterday announced that it has signed a NT$3.5 billion five-year syndicated loan agreement with 11 domestic banks to repay old bank loans and enrich its funds.
The syndicated loan was led by the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and another 10 financial institutions.
The company originally planned to borrow NT$2.8 billion loan.
The company planned to use the bank loans to upgrade its production technology, Formosa Epitaxy said.
Vee Time to buy Tatung unit
Local WiMAX operator Vee Time Corp (威達雲端) yesterday said it planned to acquire local peer Tatung InfoComm Co (大同電信) for NT$150 million.
That will be the second acquisition launched by Vee Time after buying Vmax Telecom Co (威邁思) for NT$391 million.
Asia Pacific profit triples
Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信), the nation’s No. 4 telecoms operator by subscriber, yesterday said net profit almost tripled to NT$10.66 billion, or NT$3.25 per share, from NT$3.67 billion, or NT$1.12 a share, a year ago.
The growth mostly came from an increase of NT$4.91 billion in its asset value, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Revenues rose 10.23 percent to NT$25.6 billion last year, from NT$23.2 billion in 2010.
Asia Pacific Telecom has 3 million subscribers.
Nanya to set up subsidiary
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top DRAM maker, said on Thursday that the board approved a plan to set up a new fully owned subsidiary for its contract chipmaking.
The new company, Sumpro Electronics Corp (勝普), operates a factory that was originally owned by Nanya Technology. The factory has a monthly capacity of 27,000 wafers.
Sumpro said it planned to expand the capacity to 45,000 wafers in the near future.
NT dollar drops slightly
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.011 to close at NT$29.585, after the local central bank intervened to boost the greenback in late trade and reverse the unit’s earlier losses, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$763 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
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