EQUITIES
TAIEX sheds 0.25 percent
Local shares yesterday edged lower, but the TAIEX remained above 11,000 points due to support from small and medium-sized stocks. The TAIEX closed down 27.85 points, or 0.25 percent, at 11,006.34, with turnover totaling NT$137 billion (US$4.48 billion). The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s eight major stock categories reported a mixture of gains and losses. Falling stocks outnumbered gainers 486 to 314, with 120 unchanged. On the currency market, the New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar, advancing NT$0.051 to close at NT$30.551. Turnover totaled US$854 million during the trading session at Taipei Forex Inc.
HEALTHCARE
Apex Medical shares soar
Apex Medical Corp (雃博) shares yesterday rose by the daily limit of 10 percent after the respiratory therapy equipment maker announced that it has received a NT$380 million investment from CDIB Capital Group (中華開發資本) and the National Development Fund (國發基金). CDIB Capital and the fund have agreed to participate in Apex Medical’s private placement by subscribing for 17.53 million shares at NT$22.1 apiece, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday. The firm said it would use the proceeds to establish overseas outlets and invest in offshore units, in addition to researching new products and technologies. The shares closed at NT$28.45 in Taipei trading.
ELECTRONICS
AVC posts record revenue
PC cooler maker Asia Vital Components Co Ltd (AVC, 奇鋐) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$75 million for last month, or earnings per share of NT$0.21, up 17.6 percent from the same period last year. Revenue grew 14.73 percent year-on-year to NT$2.65 billion, a record high, AVC said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company is a major beneficiary of rising demand for base stations and servers, but as its shares have become volatile, the regulator required AVC to release last month’s financial results. Its shares closed 1.87 percent higher at NT$27.25 yesterday, after falling 4.29 percent on Thursday.
INTERNET
Bytedance deal mulled
Softbank Corp, KKR & Co and General Atlantic plan to make a giant investment in fast-rising Chinese Internet player Beijing Bytedance Technology Co Ltd (北京字節跳動科技), according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that could make it the world’s biggest start-up. The latest round of financing could value Bytedance, parent of news aggregator Toutiao (頭條) and video sensation Tik Tok (抖音), at about US$75 billion, the people said. The deal is still being discussed and the terms could change, the people said.
automAKERs
Level 4 vehicle unveiled
Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co Ltd (HAITEC, 華創車電技術中心), a Yulon Group (裕隆集團) affiliate, and PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) on Thursday unveiled the nation’s first level 4 autonomous concept vehicle. The smart electric vehicle integrates core technologies such as data analysis and management, which cater to the nation’s complex road networks, Yulon Group said. The concept vehicle developed by HAITEC and Acer is designed based on an open source platform, providing companies interested in entering the field of autonomous vehicles easier access to research and development ecosystems, Yulon said.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by