TIRES
Kenda cuts dividend
Kenda Rubber Industrial Co (建大輪胎), the nation’s second-largest tire manufacturer, yesterday said its board has approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$2 per share, slightly down from NT$2.2 last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The proposal came after the company’s net profit last year decreased 10.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.09 billion (US$101.2 million), or earnings per share of NT$3.54. Revenue fell 5.6 percent to NT$29.49 billion during the same period. Kenda is to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 15 where shareholders are to vote on the payout proposal.
BANKING
Citibank to shut a branch
Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) yesterday announced plans to shut at least one more branch in the second half of this year, as the company continues to focus on delivering its services online after closing four of its branches last year. The bank is to merge two branches in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) to cut down on redundant coverage, it said. Meanwhile, its branch in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) yesterday became its 37th “smart branch,” offering interactive media-enhanced financial planning, investment modeling and tracking services.
EQUITIES
TAIEX rallies after sell-off
Shares closed little changed yesterday, moving in consolidation mode after the local main board’s strong recent showing, dealers said. Sentiment turned cautious about possible technical resistance ahead of the TAIEX’s 10,000-point mark and many investors took to the sidelines, which dragged down turnover and left some large-cap stocks in the doldrums, dealers said. The weighted index closed up 4.28 points, or 0.04 percent, at 9,912.97, after fluctuating between 9,869.35 and 9,916.18. Turnover totaled NT$82.65 billion during the session after reaching NT$109.55 billion on Friday last week. The market opened down 2.88 points as investors took their cue from a lackluster Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 index was 0.13 percent lower after Washington released mixed economic data on Friday last week, dealers said. Selling increased on the local main board, pushing the index below 9,900 points at one point, as investors locked in their gains from last week, but later bargain hunting helped the index return to positive territory by the end of the session, they said.
TRADE
Siew to attend forum: source
Former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) is to lead a Taiwanese delegation to this year’s Boao Forum for Asia from Thursday to Sunday in Boao, China, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. Siew is to attend a forum themed “Globalization and Free Trade — Asian Perspectives,” in his capacity as honorary chairman of the Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation. The former vice president is scheduled to arrive in Boao on Friday, where he will be greeted at the airport by a Taiwan Affairs Office deputy director, the source said. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced at a news conference on Friday last week that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) will also attend the forum. However, Chinese authorities have yet to unveil the list of officials invited to attend this year’s four-day conference.
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