TAIEX down on futures selling
The TAIEX closed lower yesterday on futures-led selling as foreign institutional investors had to settle large short-position contracts on the local futures market, dealers said.
Selling focused on select large-cap stocks, in particular in the electronics sector, amid lingering concerns over a rising New Taiwan dollar. Old economy stocks also pulled back as investors locked in gains they had posted in recent sessions, they said. The weighted index closed down 64.59 points, or 0.83 percent, at the day’s low of 7,700.43, on turnover of NT$83.44 billion (US$2.88 billion).
Unpaid leave figure drops
The number of workers on unpaid leave has decreased by more than 1,000 over the past two weeks, government statistics released yesterday showed.
The total number of furloughed workers was 3,217, employed by 49 companies, as of Tuesday, the Council of Labor Affairs said.
HTC phone tops Amazon list
HTC Corp’s (宏達電) new flagship smartphone has become the best-seller on Amazon.com Inc’s cellphone sales rankings in the US, beating the likes of products from archrival Samsung Electronics Co.
Launched on Nov. 14 through mobile operator Verizon Wireless, the 5-inch HTC Droid DNA topped Amazon’s ranking in the category of best-sellers in cellphones with service plans, while Samsung’s popular 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II and 4.8-inch Galaxy S III came in second and third respectively, Amazon said yesterday.
OLED TV sales to outpace UHDs
Shipments of OLED televisions are expected to outpace those of ultra-high-definition (UHD) TVs worldwide by 2015, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) predicted yesterday.
Global UHD TV shipments will total 500,000 units this year and an estimated 3.2 million units in 2015, compared with OLED TV shipments of 50,000 units this year and 3.24 million units in 2015, it said.
The gap will widen in 2017, when global OLED TV shipments are expected to top 10 million units, well above an estimated 5.95 million UHD TVs.
Currently, only South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc makes OLED TVs, while at least five companies, including Samsung Electronics Co, Japan’s Sharp Corp and Taiwan’s AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), produce UHD TVs.
Flat-panel R&D up 11.1%
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that in the first three quarters of last year, four major flat-panel makers in Taiwan — Innolux Corp (群創光電), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) and Hannstar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) — spent a total of NT$18 billion on research and development, up 11.1 percent from the same period last year.
The ministry said the increase in R&D spending was expected to boost the global competitiveness of the nation’s flat panel sector.
Kaohsiung has highest debt
Residents in Greater Kaohsiung continued to shoulder the heaviest debt burden in Taiwan as of the end of last month, the Ministry of Finance’s “Local Government Debt Clock” showed yesterday.
Its debt totaled NT$224.13 billion at the end of last month, translating into NT$80,700 in debt per capita, ministry data showed.
The Miaoli County Government placed second-highest on the list by posting NT$68,000 in debt per person, followed by Taipei, Yilan County and Hsinchu County.
NT dollar inches lower
The New Taiwan dollar closed lower against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.043 to close at NT$29.099.
Turnover totaled US$653 million during the trading session.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the