TAIEX passes 7,800 points
The TAIEX closed above the 7,800 points yesterday on the back of further fund inflows with foreign investors more willing to take risks after the US escaped the “fiscal cliff,” dealers said.
Select large-cap stocks, in particular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), remained spotlighted in buying and boosted daily turnover as foreign institutional investors rushed to build up their holdings, the dealers said.
TSMC closed 1.41 percent higher at NT$101.00, the first time the stock had breached the NT$100.00 mark in almost 12 years.
The benchmark TAIEX ended up 57.62 points, or 0.74 percent, at 7,836.84 on turnover of NT$104.91 billion (US$3.62 billion).
FTC to discuss Next Media deal
Fair Trade Commission Chairman Wu Shiow-ming (吳秀明) said yesterday at the Legislative Yuan that the commission is likely to hold a meeting by next week to discuss, whether Next Media Group (壹傳媒集團) buyers other than Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) chairman William Wong (王文淵) have to submit the buyout deal, whether further documents are needed and whether the Next TV buyout contract has to be filed for review of the Next Media buyout.
Wu said the commission would demand that related parties provide the required documents in two to four weeks. However, he said it is unlikely that the review would be completed by the end of this month and new commissioners will take over the review next month.
Taiwanese invest big in Fujian
Taiwanese companies made new investments worth a total of US$1.69 billion in China’s Fujian Province between January and November last year, up 28.8 percent from a year earlier, according to a Chinese media report.
So far, accumulated Taiwanese investment in Fujian has exceeded US$20 billion and there are 763 Taiwanese companies with capitalization of over US$10 million in the province, the Xinhua news agency said, citing statistics compiled by the province’s Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.
CPC forecasts revenue
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) is expected to generate revenues of up to NT$1.2 trillion this year, with a net profit of NT$17.58 billion, chairman Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠) forecast on Wednesday.
Of the NT$17.58 billion, net profit from natural gas will account for NT$5.4 billion, he said. The company will seek breakthroughs in its refinery business, operation expansion, sales of oil products, research and innovation, industrial safety, and major investment planning, Lin said.
He said he hopes CPC’s third naphtha cracker in Greater Kaohsiung, which is being upgraded, will be operational by June.
Bad loan ratio falls
The non-performing loan ratio dropped to 0.47 percent at the end of November, down from 0.49 percent one month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
That translates into a NT$4.6 billion decline in total bad loans, which stood at NT$104.2 billion for 38 domestic lenders at the end of November.
Meanwhile, outstanding loans amounted to NT$22.15 trillion, down NT$44.3 billion from a month earlier, the commission said.
All lenders reported a bad loan ratio of less than 2 percent, with the coverage ratio climbing to 232.46 percent, up 9.45 percentage points from a month earlier.
NT dollar sheds NT$0.001
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.001 to close at NT$29.091.
Turnover totaled about US$786 million during the trading session.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six