Stocks gained yesterday, lifting the benchmark index to its highest in nearly 14 months.
Computer-related companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
Phoenixtec Power Co (
The TAIEX added 51.99, or 1 percent, to 5,488.74, its highest close since June 19. The index gained 4.9 percent over the week, its biggest gain since the week ended July 5. Index futures expiring in August gained 0.4 percent to 5,490. About two stocks gained for every one that fell.
About 5 billion shares changed hands. The value of trading was NT$121.2 billion (US$3.5 billion), 21 percent above the three-month daily average.
"The computer industry has shown clear signs of a recovery," said Phil Chen, who manages Grand Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co's (大華投信) US$46 million High-Tech Fund.
"Strong server demand showed businesses are in spending mode again," he said.
"Foreign investors likely continued to buy tech stocks" given that chipmaker stocks were higher yesterday, said Tu Jin-lung (
Chipmakers are among foreign investors' favorite investments.
TSMC gained NT$1.50, or 2.5 percent, to NT$61, while rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) rose 0.4 percent to NT$24.60.
Semiconductor stocks were also boosted after Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at SoundView Technology Group, said Texas Instruments Inc will benefit from a recovery in the industry.
He said Texas Instru-ments is the best stock to own to take advantage of a recovering semiconductor industry. Moses-mann raised the shares to "outperform" from "neutral."
Dell said shipments of servers, computers that run corporate networks, Web sites and e-mail, rose 27 percent in the period. Second-quarter profit rose 24 percent.
Phoenixtec Power, the nation's largest maker of UPS systems, gained NT$2.60, or 6.8 percent to NT$41.10.
Powercom, which exports UPS systems to the US, rose NT$3.50, or 6.9 percent, to NT$54.50.
"Some investors can see opportunities even in ruins," said Eddie Chiu, who manages the equivalent of US$116 million for First Global Investment Trust Co's (
"The power outage will remind people of the need for UPS systems," he said.
Tu said the massive blackouts in North America encouraged some domestic institutional investors to take profits.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
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INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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