EQUITIES
Shares stage rebound
Taiwanese shares staged a technical rebound to end above the 10,400-point mark yesterday, recovering from a slump a session earlier as investors took their cue from Wall Street, which rose overnight. While select electronics laggards attracted bargain hunting throughout the session, the financial sector outperformed the broader market to lend support to the weighted index amid hopes of rising interest rates, which could improve banks’ bottom lines. The TAIEX closed up 31.1 points, or 0.3 percent, at 10,421.65 on turnover of NT$99.143 billion (US$3.26 billion). Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$4.09 billion of shares on the main board yesterday, after net sales of NT$1.29 billion on Wednesday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
REVENUES
Taipower drops off list
State-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has, for the first time in 34 years, fallen out of the top 10 Taiwanese companies in a survey that ranks the top 5,000 local enterprises by revenue. The survey — released on Wednesday by China Credit Information Service Ltd (CCIS, 中華徵信所) — ranked Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) first for revenue last year and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) third among six companies in the supply chain of Apple Inc that made the list. New to the top 10 list were Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) and Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) in eighth and 10th respectively, while Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) was fifth, CCIS said. The only state-owned enterprise to make the list was oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), which was sixth.
FINANCE
Cathay executive steps down
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday announced another change to its executive lineup as it seeks to enhance corporate governance and transparency. Cathay Financial vice chairman Chen Tsu-pei (陳祖培) stepped down as chairman of Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Cathay Financial said, with his post to be filled by Andrew Kuo (郭明鑑), an investment banking veteran specializing in mergers and acquisitions. Chen is to take on a new role at the parent company overseeing long-term strategies and resource allocations, Cathay Financial said. Industry observers said that Cathay Financial is shifting to a new regime that would allow its founding Tsai (蔡) family and major shareholders to steer the overall strategy via a committee, while leaving day-to-day operations to the board of directors and the management team of industry experts.
FASHION
H&M sees sales rise
Swedish low-cost fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) yesterday said that its second-quarter sales increased 10 percent to 59.5 billion kronor (US$7 billion) mainly because of its continued expansion and tight control of costs. Its net profit for the three-month period rose by 10 percent to 7.7 billion kronor. Chief executive officer Karl-Johan Persson said that online sales developed “very well,” while the group’s other brands “remained very strong, both in stores and online.” However, sales were “more challenging” in several major markets, including the US and China. The Stockholm-based group said it added six new markets — Taiwan, Turkey, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia — to its online offering during the period, taking the total to 41.
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
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
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