TAIEX dips on profit-taking
The TAIEX pulled back on mild profit-taking yesterday as investors took cues from an overnight fall on Wall Street, dealers said.
Selling emerged in certain local electronics stocks after US-based personal computer vendor Dell Inc issued a cautious sales outlook for the quarter to October after Wall Street closed, they said. Some old economy stocks, in particular the textile sector, also suffered obvious sell-offs as investors locked in profits after recent gains, they added.
The weighted index closed down 10.23 points, or 0.14 percent, at 7,496.58, after moving between 7,461.07 and 7,501.26, on turnover of NT$62.28 billion (US$2.08 billion).
At the end of the session, the textile sector had suffered the heaviest losses among the eight major sectors, finishing down 3.5 percent.
Powerchip to trade new shares
Memorychip maker Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) yesterday said it would trade its new shares on the GRETAI Securities Market on Sept. 28 following a 60 percent, or NT$33.24 billion, cut in its capitalization. Investors could continue trading Powerchip’s old shares through Sept. 17.
The company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its paid-in capital will be approximately NT$22.16 billion following the capitalization reduction, with net value per share increasing to NT$2.15 from NT$0.86.
Patent lawsuit dropped
Bluestone Innovations LLC, a South Korean patent holding company, on Monday withdrew a patent infringement lawsuit against Taiwan’s LED chipmaker Formosa Epitaxy Inc (璨圓), the Taiwanese company said yesterday in a statement.
Formosa Epitaxy is among several LED firms facing legal complaints by Bluestone Innovations in 2010 for infringing upon its intellectual property in Group III-V nitride production process. Others include Taiwan’s Huga Optotech Inc (廣鎵光電) and Tekcore Co (泰谷光電) as well as Japanese LED chipmakers Nichia Corp and Toyoda Gosei Co.
TSMC raises NT$21.7 billion
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has raised NT$21.7 billion (US$724 million) via a bond sale, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday.
TSMC sold NT$12.7 billion of five-year bonds at a yield of 1.28 percent, and NT$9 billion of seven-year bonds at a yield of 1.39 percent, the report said.
That was compared to the previous sales of NT$9.9 billion five-year bonds and NT$9 billion seven-year bonds in late June, when the five-year debts were sold at a yield of 1.28 percent and the seven-year bonds at a yield of 1.40 percent.
Rare earths quota increased
China has slightly increased this year’s quota for rare earths exports under controversial controls on the exotic minerals needed by manufacturers of mobile phones and other high-tech products.
The Commerce Ministry yesterday said the quota for the second half of this year will be 8,866 tonnes. Added to the quota for the first six months of the year, that brings the 2012 total to 28,119 tonnes — an increase of about 3 percent over last year.
China has about 30 percent of the world’s rare earths, but accounts for 97 percent of production. It alarmed global manufacturers when it imposed export controls in 2009 while it tried to build up its companies to produce products made of rare earths.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.035 to close at NT$30.010. Turnover totaled about US$521 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
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
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
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