TAIEX rallies on US optimism
The TAIEX staged a rally yesterday, with many investors expecting the US Federal Reserve to come up with further liquidity easing measures to boost the economy, dealers said.
The gains also reflected optimism that the constitutional court in Germany was set to rule on whether the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund is constitutional later in the day.
The weighted index closed up 85.32 points, or 1.14 percent, at 7,570.45, after moving between 7,515.04 and 7,571.42, on turnover of NT$103.27 billion (US$3.49 billion), the highest level since Aug. 9.
‘Green goods’ get tax break
Items categorized as environmental goods and services (EGS), due to enjoy tariff cuts as the result of an agreement among APEC members, account for 10 percent of Taiwan’s total exports, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said this year’s APEC economic ministers’ meeting had produced an agreement to reduce the applied tariff rates on 54 EGS items to less than 5 percent by the end of 2015.
The 54 items include products and services related to reducing water or air pollution, waste management and renewable energy.
TAITRA aims exports at Iraq
Taiwan has set its sights on Iraq in its bid to promote exports to that country, according to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會).
The Iraqi government has been very active in opening its market to foreign countries after the US completed its troop withdrawal in December last year, the TAITRA said in a statement on Tuesday.
TAITRA said there is massive demand for power supply equipment, infrastructure and machinery, as well as notebook computers and smartphones in Iraq. In addition, TAITRA foresees great potential in the Iraqi car market because the country lacks public transportation.
FSC to relax investment rules
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Tuesday announced plans to allow domestic securities investment trust companies greater flexibility so that they may better utilize their funds for domestic investment, according to a commission statement.
Under the current regulations, domestic securities investment trust companies can only invest up to 30 percent of their net worth on trust funds. The commission said it would soon raise the ceiling to 40 percent.
Separately, the commission on Tuesday approved SinoPac Securities Co’s (永豐金證券) plan to acquire Pacific Securities Co (太平洋證券), which will add 10 offices to the total number of outlets of SinoPac Securities to 59.
Breeze Center to expand
In view of a steady growth in its dining and restaurant operations, the Breeze Center (微風廣場) has announced plans to open the first Taiwan location for the Japanese discount store “Don Quixote” and expand its dining operations at the Taipei Railway Station, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday.
The department store operator posted consolidated revenue of NT$7.5 billion in the first eight months of this year, up 8 percent from the same period of last year, the paper said, citing company data. Breeze Center has aimed to increase its consolidated sales by 9 percent to NT$11 billion for this year, the paper added.
NT dollar up vs greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.046 to close at NT$29.669.
Turnover totaled US$816 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