TAIEX edges slightly lower
The TAIEX edged slightly lower in a quiet session yesterday as many investors stayed on the sidelines before global index provider MSCI releases the results of its index revisions today, dealers said.
Market sentiment also remained cautious amid lingering concerns over the world’s economic fundamentals after the GDP of the eurozone for the second quarter contracted 0.2 percent from a quarter earlier, they said.
In the high-tech sector, smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) fell 4.13 percent to close at NT$243.50 after the company said chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) did not buy any HTC shares last month, which only made investors more keen to lock in the stock’s 5.83 percent gain a day earlier. In June, Wang spent more than NT$1.8 billion to buy 5 million shares in the open market to support the share price.
The weighted index closed down 11.51 points, or 0.15 percent, at 7,467.74, after moving between 7,442.72 and 7,489.81, on turnover of NT$73.39 billion (US$2.45 billion).
Dimerco Express opens LA office
Dimerco Express Corp (中菲行), a Taipei-based global logistics and service provider, yesterday announced it would launch a customs brokerage service in Los Angeles to expand its business in the US.
Dimerco Customs Brokerage Services Co — the company’s subsidiary in Chicago — obtained the local customs broker permit from Los Angeles Customs on July 23, with the new office in Los Angeles, the company’s second branch in the US, starting operations on Wednesday next week.
“With the potential in providing logistic services across the US, combining the existing convenient air and sea-freight service, Dimerco can further develop its global business,” the company said in a press release.
Dimerco’s subsidiaries in Chicago and Los Angeles are to work closely with Dimerco Express (USA) Corp and its 15 global branch offices to provide logistics services to its clients worldwide, the release said.
Banks bid for lottery rights
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) yesterday submitted their applications to the Ministry of Finance to bid for the exclusive right to manage the issuance of Public Welfare Lottery tickets from January 2014.
Bidding for the 10-year issuance rights attracted only these two financial institutions.
The committee set up by the ministry would pick one of these two financial institutions by the end of October.
In 2005, Chinatrust outbid three rivals by offering NT$14.61 billion in cash rewards over a seven year period which would come to an end at the end of this year.
Hotai starts NT$8bn project
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), a local agent of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp, has launched a three-year, NT$8 billion project to enhance its presence and services in Taiwan, the company said yesterday.
The company plans to remodel and upgrade all of its 136 outlets by 2015, including showrooms and service workshops, marking the largest investment in the company’s history, the company said.
The project is to include retail facilities and repair centers for both Toyota and Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand.
Hotai Motor has a 34 percent share of the local auto market and aims to raise its market share to 40 percent by 2015.
NT dollar inches down
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.037 to close at NT$30.002.
Turnover totaled US$557 million during the trading session.
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
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
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