The TAIEX shed 0.84 percent to 8,063 yesterday, ending the Year of the Goat with a 15.3 percent decline as investors grew uneasy over further volatility in global markets after Wall Street took a hit and international oil prices plunged, dealers said.
Selling focused on financial stocks amid fears that they would incur heavy losses from their overseas investments at a time of instability in the world economy, while Apple Inc-linked stocks trended lower due to lingering worries over shipments of the next generation of iPhones, they said.
Bucking the TAIEX fall, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, lent support to the local bourse after the company announced a generous cash dividend proposal for earnings made last year, they added.
The main trading index fell 68.24 points, or 0.84 percent, to 8,063.00 on turnover of NT$77.596 billion (US$2.3 billion), Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
As of today, the bourse is closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, and is to resume trading on Feb. 15.
It was the fourth time in the past 20 years that the TAIEX recorded a loss ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, according to TWSE data.
The three previous losing sessions were in 1996, 1998 and 2014.
The index tumbled 15.3 percent, or 1,466 points, in the lunar year that ends on Sunday.
“It was no surprise that the Taiwan market suffered a loss due to the shock seen on Wall Street and the plunge in oil prices,” Concord Securities analyst Kerry Huang said.
Compared with other regional markets, the local equity market seemed resilient, Huang said.
TSMC helped support the market after announcing its cash dividend proposal a day earlier.
TSMC plans to distribute an NT$6 cash dividend for earnings made last year, higher than the NT$4.5 dividend for 2014, after the chipmaker posted a new record in net profit for last year.
TSMC closed up by 2.46 percent to close at NT$146 after a 0.45 percent increase in its American depository receipts overnight.
Turnover posted by TSMC share transactions stood at NT$10.39 billion on the main board yesterday.
However, other high-tech stocks, particularly those in the supply chain of Apple, came under pressure as foreign institutional investors stood on the sell side, dealers said.
According to the TWSE, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$1.65 billion worth of shares on the main board yesterday.
Among Apple-linked names, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), an assembler of iPhones and iPads, fell 2.3 percent to close at NT$76.60 and metal casing maker Catcher Technology Co (可成) shed 2.06 percent to end at NT$237.50.
Largan Precision Co (大立光) closed unchanged at NT$2,350.
In the financial sector, which ended down by 1.97 percent, Fubon Financial Holdings Co (富邦) lost 1.69 percent to close at NT$37.85, and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金) fell 3.24 percent to end at NT$35.80.
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