TAIEX falls 0.75 percent
The TAIEX fell 0.75 percent yesterday, dragged down by losses on Wall Street and in European markets on Friday on renewed concerns about Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and weak economic momentum in the US, dealers said.
The index finished down 58.41 points, or 0.75 percent, to close at 7,729.86 on anemic turnover of NT$58 billion (US$1.96 billion).
Most of the market’s eight major stock categories closed down, but food shares were the exception, finishing up 0.9 percent.
Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) fund manager Chen Huang-jen (陳煌仁) expected the benchmark index to move between 7,500 and 8,000 points in the short term.
Chen suggested the bourse might rebound because uncertainty over a capital gains tax has lifted and the outlooks for various industries have grown clearer.
Taichung-Okinawa flights start
Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), a subsidiary of China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), launched direct flights between Taichung and Okinawa on Saturday, saying it will operate round-trip flights twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.
The new service will be operated as a charter flight in its initial stage, but the carrier said it hoped to begin regularly scheduled flight services between Taichung and the popular Japanese vacation destination within three months.
Mandarin Airlines said it hoped to use the new service to also build up Taichung as a gateway through which Japanese visit Taiwan.
In the first two months of this year, Taiwanese made 224,263 visits to Japan, up 7.43 percent from a year earlier, while visitor arrivals from Japan to Taiwan rose 9.23 percent to 227,371, according to Tourism Bureau data.
To meet rising demand from Taiwanese tourists, Mandarin Airlines launched charter flight services between Taichung and Seoul on April 6, operating four round-trip flights every week. The carrier is scheduled to begin charter services between Taichung and Macau on Saturday, providing seven round-trip flights a week.
CPC restarts naphtha cracker
CPC Corp, Taiwan (中油), the state-run oil refiner, started its No. 5 naphtha cracker yesterday after shutting it because of a fire on April 6, Jessica Tang (唐苑莉), a spokeswoman for the Taipei-based company, said by telephone. The damaged butadiene plant at the facility remains halted, she said.
Novatek approves cash dividend
Local chip designer Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠) yesterday said the board has approved to deliver cash dividend of NT$4.6 per share to shareholders, according to a company statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
That represented 5.13 percent in dividend yield based on the stock’s closing price of NT$89.5 yesterday.
The chip designer’s net profits dropped 3.38 percent to NT$3.7 billion, or NT$6.16 per share, last year from the previous year.
AMOLED panel shipments surge
Global shipments of slim and -energy-efficient AMOLED flat panels are expected to more than double to 170 million units this year from last year’s 80.5 million units, driven by strong growth of smartphones, Taipei-based market researcher Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) forecast yesterday.
The market was now dominated by South Korean firm Samsung, which supplied 97 percent of the world’s AMOLED panels used in mobile devices, Topology said in a report.
Lagging far behind their South Korean rival, Taiwan’s AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) and Ritdisplay Corp (錸寶) planned to mass produce AMOLED panels this quarter, or in the second half of this year, Topology said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure