TSMC bucks downward trend
Lingering concerns over the global economy sent shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange into a tailspin yesterday as investors rushed to unload their holdings to curtail losses, dealers said.
While select large cap stocks, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) ,appeared resilient throughout the session, selling was seen across the board amid fears that weakening global demand will squeeze corporate earnings, they said.
Shares in TSMC, which posted a quarterly record high net profit in the third quarter, ended up 2.95 percent at NT$87.30.
Shares in AU Optronics Corp (友達), however, took a dive yesterday after the flat-panel maker reported massive losses for the third quarter, causing stock to drop 7 percent, the largest daily decline, to NT$10.35.
The benchmark TAIEX closed down 128.02 points, or 1.76 percent, at 7,134.06. Turnover was NT$89.68 billion (US$3.06 billion) during the session.
Central bank to auction bonds
The nation’s central bank is expected to sell NT$30 billion (US$1 billion) of 20-year bonds at an average yield of 1.58 percent on Monday, according to the median estimate of seven fixed-income traders surveyed.
The rates forecast ranged from 1.56 percent to 1.59 percent. Similar-maturity notes yielded 1.597 percent in the secondary market at yesterday’s close in Taipei, according to GRETAI Securities Market.
Investors will bid on the yield at auction on Monday. The issuer will set the coupon by taking the highest winning offer.
Solar power plant inaugurated
A privately built and operated solar power plant was inaugurated in Greater Tainan’s Syuejia District (學甲) yesterday, with a total installed capacity of 1.2 million watts.
The facility is the largest single solar power plant in Taiwan operated by a private company, according to Jerry Chen (陳繼仁), chairman of Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾).
Since the end of June when the power station began grid-connected power generation, the Hsinchu-based Giga Solar plant has produced 600,000kWh, which equals a monthly power output of 160,000kWh, enough for the needs of 400 families, he said.
Accumulated installed capacity of solar plants in Taiwan stands at 200 million watts, less than 0.5 percent of the total power generated in the country, he said.
Swedish firms invest in Taiwan
Four Swedish companies will invest more than US$200 million in Taiwan over the next three years, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The companies are industrial tool and equipment maker Atlas Copco, mobile telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson, SCA Hygiene Products and Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, the ministry said in a statement.
The results were achieved by a Northern Europe investment promotion mission headed by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭), which is visiting Finland and Sweden between Oct. 20 and Oct. 28 as part of the government’s ongoing efforts to boost investment from overseas.
NT dollar under more pressure
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.02 to close at NT$29.300 after the local bourse took a beating to place downward pressure on the local currency, dealers said.
The Taiwan dollar also weakened against the greenback in line with its counterparts in the region, which came under pressure amid lingering concerns over global demand, they said.
Turnover totaled about US$565 million during the session.
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