Taiwanese shares yesterday fell below their quarterly moving average of 9,704 points, closing at their lowest point since March 10, as investors reacted nervously to a call for a general election in the UK on June 8, dealers said.
Tuesday’s announcement by British Prime Minister Theresa May that she was calling an early election to prevent “political game-playing” ahead of Brexit and give the UK the “strong and stable leadership” needed to deliver Brexit, sent European and US stocks lower and Asian markets reacted the same way.
Local shares closed down 106.62 points, or 1.09 percent, at 9,639.94, after moving between 9,725.39 and 9,631.64 on turnover of NT$87.38 billion (US$2.87 billion).
An increasingly uncertain international situation and the heavy foreign-exchange losses incurred by listed companies in the first quarter led all major stock categories to lose ground during the session.
The bellwether electronics sector and financial, plastics and chemical, and construction shares all fell about 1 percent.
A 1.12 percent decline in financial shares continued the weakness in the sector that has persisted for about one month and adversely affected the broader market more recently, dealers said.
Cathay Financial (國泰金) closed 1.49 percent lower at NT$46.2, while Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰銀) shed 0.4 percent to close at NT$17.5.
Fubon Financial (富邦金) remained unchanged at NT$46.5.
Electronics stocks fell 0.97 percent.
Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell NT$0.8 to end at NT$186.5, while Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, lost 1.24 percent to close at NT$95.8.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San