Taiwan shares fell for a second day, paced by Mosel Vitelic Inc and memory chipmakers, after a Mosel board member disclosed plans to sell 5 million shares -- a sign investors were fretting that corporate sales will fall short of expectations after last month's earthquake halted production.
Limiting the decline, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co rose after saying it lowered its estimated sales losses as production was back on track sooner than expected after the quake.
The benchmark TWSE Index shed 55.38, or 0.7 percent, to 7501.63, its sixth fall since the Sept. 21 quake. Sixteen of the 19 sub-indexes were in negative territory. Some 388 issues fell, 80 rose and 59 were unchanged. Trading totaled NT$69.2 billion, little more than three-fifths of the three-month daily average.
"The concern that this year's economic growth will be hurt by the disaster will be spooking investors," said James Tsui, manager of Grand Pacific Securities Investment Trust's NT$3 billion Mainstream Fund. "The main index is under pressure to fall to 7400." Tsui said he plans to keep his position at 60 percent of stocks as he's cautious about the market.
electronics
Computer memory chipmakers fell. The sales plan of Mosel's board member raised concern the stock's 9.4 percent gain in less than two weeks isn't justified given the damage incurred by the company.
Mosel dropped NT$0.50, or 1.4 percent, to NT$35. Winbond Electronics Corp, a contract manufacturer of Toshiba Corp., slid NT$1, or 1.8 percent, to NT$55.50. Pro Mos Technologies Inc, a supplier of Siemens AG, fell NT$0.50, or 0.7 percent, to NT$72.
TSMC, the world's biggest custom-designed chipmaker, gained NT$1.50, or 1.2 percent, to NT$131.50 and was the third-most actively traded share by value. On Tuesday, TSMC cut its forecast for quake-related losses in sales from an earlier prediction of NT$2.8 billion, Steve Tso, a senior vice president, told the press.
United Microelectronics Corp, TSMC's closest rival, jumped NT$1.50, or 2 percent, to NT$75.50 and was the most active by market value.
Foreign investors on Tuesday were net buyers of 4.7 million shares -- more than any other stock -- suggesting UMC will be able to recover from the quake sooner than analysts expected.
"Despite the short-term earnings impact in 1999, we do not expect any quake damage on the company's long-term earnings prospects," said Andrew Lu, a senior analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS