A gauge of expected swings in the New Taiwan dollar fell to its lowest level since January last year on speculation the central bank will be less inclined to intervene to keep exports competitive with South Korea.
The NT dollar climbed 0.3 percent this month, compared with a 1 percent advance in the won, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The currencies posted gains last month of 0.8 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.
Global funds bought US$852 million more Taiwanese shares than they sold this month, down from US$3.1 billion last month and US$2.5 billion in March, exchange data showed.
However, that did not prevent the TAIEX from jumping 3 percent this month to a three-year high yesterday.
“The won seems to be stabilizing after rising for a while, and the yuan is continuing to fall, so there are no conditions for the [New] Taiwan dollar to appreciate further,” said Samson Tu (涂韶鈺), a Taipei-based fund manager at Uni-President Assets Management Corp (統一投信).
“Taiwan’s stocks have risen, but equity inflows haven’t been that strong,” Tu added.
One-month implied volatility in the Taiwanese currency, a measure of exchange-rate moves used to price options, fell seven basis points to 3.03 percent as of 4:28pm yesterday in Taipei, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The gauge had earlier touched 2.97 percent, the lowest level since Jan. 28 last year.
In the spot market, the currency was little changed at NT$30.171 against its US counterpart, according to prices released by Taipei Forex Inc.
One-month non-deliverable forwards fell 0.1 percent to NT$30.130, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
While the local currency may be supported by exporters’ month-end dollar sales, it will trade in a tight range this week, Tu forecast.
The expected yield on the government’s 1 percent bonds due in February 2019 was little changed at 1.04 percent, prices from the GRETAI Securities Market showed.
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