G8 meeting boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX got a boost yesterday amid renewed optimism toward the debt situation in Europe, after the leaders of the G8 nations voiced support for Greece remaining in the eurozone, dealers said.
Buying in the local market focused on high-tech stocks, in particular companies in the Apple supply chain, as bargain hunters took advantage of their relatively low valuations after a recent slump, dealers added.
The TAIEX closed up 82.66 points, or 1.15 percent, at the day’s high of 7,274.89, off an early low of 7,164.90. Turnover during the session totaled NT$65.71 billion (US$2.23 billion).
At the end of the session, the construction sector scored the highest gains among the eight largest sectors of the market, finishing up 1.92 percent.
HTC shares rise on Sprint move
Shares of smartphone supplier HTC Corp (宏達電) rose 6.02 percent to NT$431.50 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday after US telecom operator Sprint announced the HTC EVO 4G LTE, one of the firm’s high-end models, will be available to customers from Thursday.
On its blog, Sprint said it expects “to begin shipping HTC EVO 4G LTE for arrival on or around Thursday, May 24 to customers who pre-ordered the device online from Sprint.”
On May 16, HTC said shipments of its HTC One X and EVO LTE devices had been delayed due to a customs review requested by the US International Trade Commission over a patent dispute with Apple Inc.
Stabilize economy: chamber
The government should take action to stabilize the economy rather than pushing through reform policies, in light of a decline in exports, General Chamber of Commerce chairman Lawrence Chang (張平沼) said yesterday.
Given that exports in the first four months of this year fell 4.7 percent from the same period of last year to US$96.37 billion, it is becoming more urgent for the government to deal with the slowing global economy, he said.
“The government should be very cautious about taking any steps at present, which means it should stabilize Taiwan’s economy first and postpone other reforms,” Chang said on the sidelines of a business seminar in Taipei.
“I think the most important work for the government now is to maintain the stability of the economy to avoid a further drop in the second quarter,” he said.
Kaohsiung moving on zone
The Greater Kaohsiung municipal government has set up a steering committee with industrial parks and port operators to speed up the probable establishment of a free economic zone in the city, Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) said on Monday.
Lee said the committee would draft a proposal for the economic zone by the end of this year and submit it to the central government for funding and assistance.
Lee said the committee will refer to the examples of Incheon in South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands and will suggest that the central government loosen restrictions for the smooth establishment of the zone.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.032 to close at NT$29.546 as the local currency gained strength amid rising optimism toward the European debt situation, dealers said.
The strength of other currencies in the region against the US dollar also propelled traders to dump the greenback and raise their Taiwan dollar holdings, they said.
Turnover totaled US$623 million during the trading session.
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
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in