Stocks rose on the last day of the year yesterday, leaving the TAIEX 32 percent higher over the year.
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
The TAIEX added 23.94, or 0.4 percent, to 5,890.69. Three stocks rose for every two that fell. The Taiwan futures index added 0.2 percent to 5,903.
Looking back at 2003, the TAIEX rose 1,438 points, or 32.3 percent, since the last trading day of the previous year. On Dec. 31 last year it closed at 4,452.45. The rise marked the best performance for the index since 1996, when it gained 34 percent.
A positive economic outlook and stronger demand are expected to boost Taiwan share prices in 2004 once the dust settles from the March presidential elections, analysts predict.
The benchmark index is seen reaching 7,000 points after a volatile year in which SARS, the Iraq war and heightened tensions with Beijing drove it to a low of 4,139.50 points in April.
Authorities have projected Taiwan's economy will grow 4.1 percent this year amid brisk exports and domestic business activities, up from an estimated 3.15 percent for 2003.
Bullish sentiment and strong foreign buying pushed the index to a 17-month high of 6,142.32 in November, but jitters over growing tensions with Beijing after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) unveiled his plans for a controversial referendum later pushed the market into a consolidation phase.
"Strains on cross-strait relations will continue to exert pressure on the stock market before the elections as all politically sensitive issues will be raised during the campaign," said Bentham Hung, a fund manager of Fuh-Hwa Securities Investment and Trust (復華投信).
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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