EQUITIES
Dog year ends with a loss
Taiwanese shares closed 0.67 points higher to end at 9,932.26 yesterday, the last trading session in the Year of the Dog. However, the TAIEX fell 488.83 points, or 4.69 percent, which translates into an average loss of NT$125,000 (NT$4,062) per retail investor, in the Year of the Dog. Turnover totaled NT$99.102 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Analysts said the TAIEX is likely to encounter more pressure at about 10,300 to 10,500 points. There is little chance the index would pass 10,500 points after the market reopens on Feb. 11, with a low of about 9,400 expected if the global stock market retrenches, they said.
DISPLAYS
HannStar confirms layoffs
LCD panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday confirmed that it had laid off 80 people, but said it has been adjusting its workforce on a regular basis to enhance operational efficiency. It said that it would hire 20 new workers after the Lunar New Year holiday. HannStar reported consolidated revenue of NT$741 billion for last month, down 33.6 percent month-on-month and 57.8 percent year-on-year. Shipments of small and medium-sized panels dropped 54 percent from November to 24.25 million units, while those of large panels decreased 10.3 percent to 98,000 units, the company said.
RESTAURANTS
TTFB launches new brand
Restaurant operator Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團) yesterday launched a new cuisine brand, Yabi Kitchen, at Breeze Nanshan Plaza (微風南山) in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義). The new brand joins TTFB’s six restaurant chains, which generated NT$4.3 billion in sales from 127 stores last year, up 4.72 percent from 2017. The company said it plans to open between 25 and 30 new stores this year, compared with 19 stores last year. In addition to Taiwan and China, TTFB is hoping to expand its footprint in the US market, with southern California likely its first choice.
LEISURE
Brogent opens iRide theater
Brogent Technologies Inc (智崴資訊), a manufacturer of theme park rides and flying theaters, yesterday opened its i-Ride flying theater in Taipei. The company said it had invested more than NT$200 million in hardware and software for the theater, which it expects to attract 300,000 visitors annually. Brogent said it has launched 30 flying theaters worldwide, attracting more than 12 million visitors. With new projects under way in China, the US, Europe and the Middle East, the company expects to have 38 or 39 flying theaters by the end of this year, with visitor numbers reaching between 13 million and 14 million, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Powertech Q4 profit drops
Memorychip tester and packager Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) yesterday said that net profit for the fourth quarter of last year fell 28.5 percent quarterly and 17.7 percent annually to NT$1.36 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.75. Quarterly sales, gross margin and operating margin all came in weaker than expected at NT$16.64 billion, 18.2 percent and 12.1 percent respectively, due to a lower capacity utilization rate, the company said. However, for last year as a whole, net profit reached NT$6.23 billion, the highest in eight years, with EPS of NT$8.02, company data showed.
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