TAIEX rallies on EU accord
The TAIEX rallied yesterday to close at the day’s high on improved sentiment after EU leaders hammered out an agreement on a 120 billion euro (US$150 billion) stimulus package to boost the region’s economy, dealers said.
Investors were also encouraged by an EU consensus to ease repayment rules for emergency loans to ailing Spanish banks, they said.
The weighted index closed up 126.67 points, or 1.77 percent, at 7,296.28, off an early low of 7,177.59, on turnover of NT$65.47 billion (US$2.19 billion).
TWSE aims for transparency
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) yesterday said it would launch an information disclosure platform for domestic warrant trading next month in a bid to strengthen market transparency.
The TWSE said it had entrusted academics to develop a model that can be used to calculate a wide range of trading information on warrants. The platform will also offer information on the implied volatility of a warrant and its future volatility, which is calculated based on the latest closing price, to help investors make transaction decisions, it said.
Last year, domestic warrant trading attracted an average of 35,165 investors per month, up from the 25,639 recorded in 2010. In the first five months of this year, the monthly average was 29,995.
Food show posts record deals
The annual Taipei International Food Show has generated record business through procurement meetings, despite a gloomy global economy, organizers said yesterday.
The show, which opened on Wednesday, hosted 876 procurement meetings during its first two days for 76 international buyers from 22 countries, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said.
The business generated from those meetings reached US$46.89 million, up 26.7 percent from US$37 million a year ago, TAITRA said.
The exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall and at Exhibition Hall 1 ends today.
FSC chairman reappointed
The Executive Yuan has reappointed Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) and Vice Chairwoman Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) to continue in their posts, spokesperson Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉) said yesterday.
Chen and Lee are due to complete their term of office tomorrow.
ANZ to set up subsidiary
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) has gained approval to set up a subsidiary in Taiwan — the fifth to be owned by a foreign bank, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
The ANZ subsidiary will be fully responsible for all assets and liabilities of the 18 existing branches, which employ about 1,600 people, the commission said.
ANZ opened its first branch in Taiwan in 1980 and acquired ABN AMRO Bank’s business in Taiwan in 2010.
Besides the Australia-based banking group, four other subsidiaries of foreign banks — Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, HSBC, and DBS — have been operating in Taiwan.
NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.056 to close at NT$29.90.
The greenback opened at the day’s high of NT$29.98 and moved to an early low of NT$29.848 before rebounding. Turnover totaled US$784 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