Stocks fell yesterday, taking the benchmark index to its fourth weekly slide in six, as oil prices surged to a record.
A technical bounce back pushed the index higher mid-morning, but with investors jittery over oil prices and weak global markets, profit-taking soon emerged to pull the market lower, the dealers said.
Firms testing and packaging integrated circuits gained, but wafer foundries and some thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display panel makers were weaker, dragging the broader electronics sector lower.
The TAIEX shed 28.45, or 0.5 percent, to 5,399.16. About three shares fell for every two that rose. The index futures for August lost 0.6 percent to 5,369. The TAIEX fell 0.4 percent this week.
The weighted index lost 21.41 points, or 0.39 percent, over the week until today. Last week the index rose by 0.83 percent.
"Investors are reluctant to build new positions or hold shares for long due to uncertainties over surging oil prices," said Alan Tseng, an assistant manager at Capital Securities Corp (
A strong rebound was unlikely unless crude oil costs stabilized and foreign funds returned to the bourse, Tseng said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) lost 2.2 percent to NT$44, while rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) fell 2.7 percent to NT$22.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation's largest flat-panel maker, fell 2.4 percent to NT$40.2 due to a bleak outlook for panel prices and demand in the coming months, while rival Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) rose 2.9 percent to NT$42.10 after it reported a record profit on Thursday for the second quarter.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the nation's sixth-biggest financial services company, added 0.3 percent to NT$34.30. It said second-quarter net income fell 11.6 percent to NT$3.43 billion, from NT$3.88 billion a year earlier because of losses from stock trading.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
RSS