Cautious investors eye EU
The TAIEX closed slightly higher yesterday in thin trade as many investors remained sidelined, watching closely how the debt problems in the eurozone will evolve after European finance ministers failed to agree on an aid package for Greece, dealers said.
The government’s pledge to crack down on possible trading irregularities by contract fund managers of government-led funds also deterred institutional investors from chasing share prices, which confined the index fluctuations in a narrow range throughout the session, they said.
The weighted index closed up 17.27 points, or 0.24 percent, at 7,105.76, after moving between 7,097.38 and 7,134.78, on turnover of NT$45.30 billion (US$1.56 billion).
The financial sector scored the highest gains among the eight major sectors of the market, finishing up 1.13 percent. Dealers said buying in financial stocks reflected lasting optimism toward increasing cross-strait financial exchanges once a currency clearing system goes into effect.
Chinatrust ratings upgraded
Fitch Ratings yesterday affirmed the long-term issuer default ratings of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and its principal subsidiary Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) at “A” as well as upgrading the long-term rating of Chinatrust Securities Co (中信銀證券) to “A” from “A-,” the ratings agency said in a statement.
The outlooks for the credit ratings of Chinatrust Financial and its subsidiaries are stable, Fitch said.
Asustek launches new Padfone
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world’s fifth-largest PC vendor, unveiled its second-generation Padfone 2 hybrid smartphone in Russia on Tuesday, where company chief executive Jerry Shen (沈振來) said the new product will soon be available to customers.
Meanwhile, Shen announced that the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update will soon be available for the Padfone 2, with customers in Taiwan and Russia expected to be able to download the new operating system for free by the end of the month.
The Padfone 2 has a 4.7-inch high-resolution screen, is powered by Qualcomm Inc’s 1.5GHz quad-core processor and runs Google Inc’s Android software. It can be combined with a 10.1-inch tablet to provide the integrated functions of a phone and a pad.
Astro Air to unveil Taipei flights
A Philippine air carrier is scheduled to launch regular flights between Subic Bay and Boracay in the Philippines and Taipei in January.
Rene Ocampo, an executive with Astro Air International Inc, expressed the airline’s intention to fly the routes when he met recently with Raymond Wang (王樂生), Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines.
The Subic-based company is now waiting for the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to give it the green light to fly the new routes.
The company will use two MD-83 passenger planes for the flights and will ask Taiwan to provide logistics and maintenance support.
NT down as US dollar, yuan up
The New Taiwan dollar remained weak against the US dollar Thursday, edging down NT$0.006 to close at NT$29.185 as the local central bank intervened in late trade to reverse the greenback’s earlier losses, dealers said.
Ahead of the central bank’s intervention, the greenback trended lower against the NT dollar as traders took cues from a rising Chinese yuan, which was boosted by an improvement in manufacturing activity in China, they said.
Turnover totaled about US$363 million during the trading session.
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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