TAIEX closes up on Fed news
The TAIEX closed above the 7,700-point mark yesterday as large-cap stocks in both the old economy and high-tech sectors moved higher, dealers said.
Rising liquidity lent support to the local bourse on the back of continued foreign fund inflows, in particular after the US Federal Reserve announced further stimulus measures overnight, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 66.9 points, or 0.87 percent, on turnover of NT$104.44 billion (US$3.59 billion).
The plastics and chemicals sector scored the highest gains among the eight major sectors of the market, finishing up 1.71 percent.
Low yield for 10-year bonds
The central bank yesterday sold NT$40 billion in 10-year bonds at a yield of 1.147 percent, lower than the 1.187 percent yield recorded in the sale of the same maturity debt in September and marking the lowest level in history for 10-year bonds, according to a press release.
The sale attracted bids for 1.63 times the amount of bonds on offer, the central bank said in the release. The bank was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance to auction the 10-year debt.
Firms stock new Apple products
Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co (燦坤實業), one of Taiwan’s biggest electronics retail chains, said yesterday it will sell “three new Apple products” between midnight and 1am today at its flagship store in Taipei.
The company had originally planned to sell the products at 10am.
Tsann Kuen said in an e-mailed statement that it has stocked “hundreds of units” of the three new products for the one-hour sales event. The retailer declined to give the names of the products due to a confidential agreement it signed with Apple.
The three products are expected to be the iPhone 5, the iPad Mini and the fourth-generation iPad with a “Retina” high-resolution display.
Apple has announced these three products will go on sale in Taiwan today.
Data Express Infotech Co (德誼數位科技), a major Apple-authorized dealer in Taiwan, said it planned to sell the iPhone 5 and the two new iPads at 8am today.
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Corp (台灣大哥大) and the Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) announced earlier this week that they will begin to sell the iPhone 5 from as early as 7:30am today.
TSA inks Indian exchange deal
The Taiwan Securities Association (TSA, 證券公會) said on Wednesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Association of National Exchanges Members of India to establish a platform for bilateral information exchange.
The cooperation will include the exchange of regulations regarding the securities industry and stock market, development of efficient trading mechanisms and strengthening of education on self-regulation among investors and securities dealers, the TSA said.
If necessary, the two sides will consult and work on issues of mutual concern, the TSA said.
Since 2007, the TSA has signed MOUs with its counterparts in 14 countries, including Japan, South Korea, Germany, Australia, the UK and Italy.
NT dollar up against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.007 to close at NT$29.101 on further foreign fund inflows which boosted demand for the local currency, dealers said.
The US dollar opened at the day’s high of NT$29.110, and moved to an early low of NT$29.039 before rebounding.
Turnover totaled US$788 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