INDIA
Inflation slows on cash curb
The nation’s wholesale inflation slowed more than estimated in the first full month following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clampdown on cash, as food prices plunged. Wholesale prices rose 3.39 percent last month from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. The median of 23 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists had predicted a 3.5 percent increase. Data last week showed that the benchmark consumer-price gauge eased to a two-year low as demand slumped. Food costs fell 0.7 percent in the wholesale index and the increase in retail prices slowed to 1.4 percent from November last year’s 2 percent gain.
ENERGY
Cheung Kong to buy Duet
A group led by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) infrastructure business yesterday said that it is buying Australian energy company Duet in a multibillion-dollar deal. Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (長江基建) and Li’s property and power utility companies are proposing to buy Duet Group for A$3 a share, in an acquisition worth A$7.4 billion (US$5.5 billion). Duet shareholders would also get a special dividend of A$0.03, according to a separate news release from Duet. That makes the terms of the deal slightly more attractive than the initial offer announced last month. The deal signifies Li’s undiminished interest in Australian investments even after being dealt a setback last year when the Australian government blocked a US$10 billion joint offer with Chinese state-owned State Grid Corp (國家電網) for a Sydney electric grid lease.
SINGAPORE
House sales surge
House sales in the city-state last year topped 2015’s tally as a third straight year of price declines stoked pent-up demand from homebuyers. Developers sold 367 units last month, taking the yearly total to 8,136, compared with the 7,440 sold in 2015, according to data released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The surge in sales came even as the government maintained real-estate curbs rolled out since 2009. House prices have eased since the government began introducing housing curbs, with some of the strictest measures implemented in 2013.
EGYPT
Foreigners to snap up bonds
The nation sees foreigners buying as much as US$10 billion to US$11 billion in local Treasury bills and bonds in the coming period, Minister of Finance Amr al-Garhy told reporters on Sunday. Government moves to reform the economy and growing investor confidence are underpinning the gradual return to levels achieved before the 2011 uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, he said. The government issued its forecast ahead of its plan to return to the international bond market to raise US$2 billion to US$2.5 billion of US dollar-denominated bonds.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda sees rising sales
Honda Motor Co is projecting an increase in global sales in the fiscal year starting April on demand in the US and China, according to a person familiar with the automaker’s plans. The Tokyo-based company has informed suppliers of its target to sell 5.15 million cars in the 2017 fiscal year, rising from 4.98 million units projected for the 12 months ending March 31, said the person, who asked not to be named as the information is private.
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
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
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