EQUITIES
G20 woes weigh on shares
Taiwanese shares yesterday moved lower on thin turnover as investors remained cautious ahead of the G20 summit this week in Japan, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are expected to meet amid trade frictions between the two countries. Selling focused on the bellwether electronics sector, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), as old economy and financial stocks also weakened to drag the broader market lower, dealers said. The TAIEX ended down 72.75 points, or 0.67 percent, at 10,706.72 points, on turnover of NT$99.63 billion (US$3.2 billion), the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$1.999 billion of shares, it said.
GOVERNMENT
Survey, university ink MOU
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Central Geological Survey yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Chung Cheng University to establish a partnership on geological studies, exhibitions and scientific education in remembrance of the 921 Earthquake 20 years ago. The survey said it is looking to reinforce cooperation between the agency and academic institutions to broaden the application of geological studies. The university is in Chiayi County, which experienced the 1906 Meishan earthquake and has since established a research center and museum.
STEELMAKERS
China Steel sales down
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) on Monday said that sales and profit last month declined as steel shipments dropped by 27,000 tonnes from April. Consolidated revenue decreased 2 percent monthly to NT$32.37 billion, while operating income and pretax income fell 27 percent and 23 percent to NT$1.79 billion and NT$1.71 billion respectively, the company said. Cumulative revenue from January to last month grew 1 percent to NT$161.76 billion, compared with NT$160.33 billion in the same period last year. However, cumulative operating income dropped 16 percent to NT$9.5 billion and pretax profit decreased 15 percent to NT$9.06 billion, it said.
BIKEMAKERS
Giant approves dividend plan
Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) shareholders on Friday approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.6 per share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$7.64, representing a payout ratio of 60.21 percent. They also approved a plan to list Giant Light Metal Technology (Kunshan) Co (捷安特輕合金科技) as Chinese yuan-denominated A-shares. The unit manufactures finished and semi-finished aluminum industrial products.
TECHNOLOGY
CRM expenditures up 15.6%
Global customer relationship management (CRM)-related software expenditures last year reached US$48.2 billion, up 15.6 percent annually, Gartner Inc said in a report yesterday. The category constitutes the fastest-growing domain in which companies has chosen to invest, Gartner said. Taiwanese firms have spent NT$1.8 billion on CRM software, with Adobe Inc, SAP SE, Oracle Corp, Cisco Systems Inc and Salesforce.com Inc making up the top five software firms, taking more than 40 percent of the market share, Gartner said. Microsoft Corp last year moved up to fifth place, replacing Genesys Inc, Gartner added. Nearly one-quarter of software firms’ total revenue comes from CRM products, it 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