Stocks gained yesterday as AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) surged by their daily limits on optimism prices of flat-panel displays may rise because of a shortage of parts to make the screens.
The TAIEX barely rose, adding 3.67 points to 5,750.81. Eight stocks fell for every Seven that gained. The futures contract for September delivery rose 0.03 percent to 5,759.
About 3.5 billion shares changed hands, or 25 percent below the average volume in the past three months. Shares worth NT$81.1 billion (US$2.4 billion) were traded.
AU Optronics, the world's No. 3 maker of flat-panel displays for
personal computers, rose NT$3.10, or 6.9 percent, to NT$48.20. Chi Mei, the country's second largest LCD display maker, rose NT$3.10, or 6.9 percent, to NT$47.80.
Quanta Display Inc (
Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機), which markets flat-panel televisions under its own brand, expects to sell 720,000 liquid-display-panel televisions next year after selling 100,000 units this year, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing company president Lin Sheng-chuan (林勝泉).
"The LCD industry is booming because more and more people are buying LCD TVs to replace bulky cathode ray tube TVs," Phil Chen, who manages the US$46 million High-Tech Fund at Grand Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) fell NT$0.60, or 1.2 percent, to NT$48.50 after a Chinese-language newspaper reported Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) will raise the price of acrylonitrile, which is used in feedstock, starting next year.
The new price will increase costs of feedstock for Chinese Petroleum clients such as Formosa Plastics by about 15 percent from the current level, the report said, citing the company's chief executive officer.
Evergreen Marine Corp (
Mega Financial Holdings Co (
Mega Financial is offering US$600 million of bonds convertible into its shares, a sale document sent to investors shows, to pay loans and fund investments. The two-year bonds will be convertible into the company's shares at NT$21.08 a share, the document shows. That's a 23 percent premium to Wednesday's close of NT$17.2.
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
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