TAIEX recoups early losses
The local bourse recouped early losses yesterday as bargain hunters became active in picking up market laggards, helping the index to end in positive territory, dealers said.
However, turnover remained thin as many investors kept to the sidelines amid worries over corporate earnings after US-based chip manufacturing equipment provider Applied Materials Inc and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc sounded the alert over their earnings outlooks, they said.
The weighted index closed up 6.56 points, or 0.09 percent, at 7,257.91, on turnover of NT$63.42 billion (US$2.12 billion).
Acer revenues rise 24%
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s No.4 PC brand, posted the best monthly revenue since September of last year last month. Revenue grew 24 percent to NT$39.75 billion, from NT$32.11 billion in May, according to Acer’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
That was an 24.46 percent increase from NT$31.94 billion in June of last year. In the April-to-June period, Acer’s revenue rose 0.66 percent to NT$97.13 billion, compared with NT$96.49 billion in the first quarter of this year.
Chunghwa Telecom EPS drops
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan’s largest telecoms service provider, on Tuesday reported earnings per share (EPS) for last month of NT$0.32, a year-on-year drop of 42.9 percent in recognition of NT$1.26 billion in land losses after the company adopted a new accounting system.
Chunghwa Telecom posted unconsolidated revenue of NT$15.68 billion last month, a drop of 4.1 percent from the same period of last year, after adopting the accounting method that is in line with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are already in use in the EU and other countries.
All publicly listed companies in Taiwan are required to switch to the IFRS system from next year, according to regulations listed on the stock exchange’s Web site.
The firm also noted that revenues from mobile telecommunications last month were down by an annual 3.5 percent due to a higher base period in the same month of last year, which was boosted by strong smartphone sales.
Dragon Steel obtains loan
Dragon Steel (中龍鋼鐵), a subsidiary fully owned by state-owned China Steel Corp (中鋼), yesterday obtained NT$35 billion syndicated loan arranged by the Bank of Taiwan. A total of 18 banks are to provide the loan.
The proceeds will be used to buy new equipment and to fund the construction of new furnances, which will help boost Dragon Steel’s competitiveness.
Dragon Steel’s revenue grew 93 percent to NT$73.8 billion last year from 2010.
Taichung group inks pact
The Taichung Tourism Association yesterday signed a cooperation agreement with a tourism organization based in the Tianjin, China, in an effort to promote tourism exchanges between the two cities.
Taichung Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇) and Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo (黃興國), who is leading a city delegation on a six-day visit to Taiwan, witnessed the signing, which took place at the Jenn Lann Temple in the city’s Dajia District.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, up NT$0.011 to close at NT$29.974 as bargain hunting emerged to help the local currency end a four-day losing streak, dealers said. However, turnover remained low as many traders stayed on the sidelines amid lingering concerns over the global economy, they said.
Turnover totaled US$484 million during the trading session.
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to