MONEY SUPPLY
Money supply still growing
The nation’s money supply continued to increase year-on-year last month, with the broader monetary gauge M2 growing faster than the narrower M1B for a fifth month running, the central bank said yesterday. M1B, referring to cash and cash equivalents, gained 6.18 percent last month from a year earlier, slower than M2’s 6.81 percent increase, the central bank said. M2 includes savings deposits, time savings deposits, foreign currency deposits, mutual funds and M1B. The central bank attributed the faster increase in M2 to inflows of foreign funds that often move worldwide in the pursuit of higher returns.
TECHNOLOGY
Hiwin expects a pickup
Hiwin Technologies Corp (上銀科技), one of the nation’s major machine tool makers, yesterday said it expects its business performance to improve in the second half of the year on the back of increasing orders for key components for industrial automation. The company also expects gear-cutting tools maker Luren Precision Co (陸聯精密) to become profitable next year, Hiwin chairman Eric Chuo (卓永財) told shareholders. Hiwin bought a 41.93 percent stake in Luren for more than NT$100 million (US$3.22 million) in March. The company’s shareholders approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.2 per share and a stock dividend of 3 percent per share based on last year’s net income of NT$2.26 billion, or NT$9.2 per share. That translates into a payout ratio of 34.78 percent and represents a cash yield of 1.52 percent, based on Hiwin’s closing price of NT$210.50 in Taipei trading yesterday.
TELECOMS
Asia Pacific expanding
Asia Pacific Telecom Co’s (亞太電信) 4G network coverage should reach 95 percent of the population by August or September, a company executive said yesterday, amid controversy over the company’s practice of offering 4G roaming services using Taiwan Mobile Telecom Co’s (台灣大哥大) network. The National Communications Commission on Tuesday signaled that it was illegal for the company to provide roaming services in the nation using Taiwan Mobile’s network. Company chairman Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) said the company has 295,000 4G subscribers. Asia Pacific is a telecommunications arm of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密). The company lost NT$8.41 billion last year, reversing a net profit of NT$1.84 billion in 2013.
EQUITIES
Large caps lead advance
The TAIEX rose 0.84 percent yesterday, as large-cap stocks staged an across-the-board technical rebound, dealers said. Market sentiment improved to some extent after foreign institutional investors raised their long position contracts in the futures market in the previous session, they said. Shares of smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) closed at a new high, amid optimism over the company’s earnings in the second half of this year, when Apple Inc’s orders are expected to stream in for production of the next generation iPhone, dealers said. The TAIEX closed 79.03 points higher at 9,476.34 on turnover of NT$101.29 billion. Among the large-cap gainers were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, which rose 1.03 percent to close at NT$146.50, while Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) advanced 1.43 percent to end at NT$99.
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
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
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure