■ Electronics boost TAIEX
Share prices closed 0.45 percent higher yesterday, supported by key electronics blue chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), dealers said. However, other major technology stocks fell as investors cashed in on early morning gains driven by the overnight rise on NASDAQ, they said. The TAIEX rose 29.57 points at 6,642.96, on turnover of NT$105.08 billion (US$3.26 billion). Decliners outnumbered risers 542 to 410, with 182 stocks unchanged. TSMC closed up NT$2.30 at NT$62.70 and UMC added NT$0.20 at NT$19.40.
■ Lawsuit threat over ETC fuss
Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (遠通電收) said it would take legal actions if its rivals and others continue to tarnish its reputation amid the uproar over its Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system. The company has done nothing illegal and hoped thorough investigations could be launched soon to resolve the ETC dispute, it said in a statement. After a court ruled last week that the government had erred in picking the system, the number of ETC requests dropped dramatically, the company said, but "returned to more than 800 units on Wednesday." More than 90 people have applied for refunds for the required on-board units.
■ Chunghwa sweetens offer
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) is offering a new retirement program in a bid to rejuvenate its work force and boost efficiency, it said in a statement yesterday. The latest early retirement offering is the sixth program the company has offered since 2001. The program will run until the end of the month. Employees 47 years old and up are eligible. The new program offers up to 17 months salary as compensation, the statement said. Chunghwa Telecom has cut around 20 percent of its workforce in the past few years and has seen the number of employees drop from 35,000 to 27,500. The company wants to hire more young professionals to improve its competitiveness.
■ CDFH adds to portfolio
China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFH, 中華開發金控), the nation's seventh-biggest financial services group by market value, has increased its stake in Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券) to 32.1 percent. China Development said in a statement late on Wednesday that it had bought 63 million shares, or 5.8 percent, of Taiwan International, which completed the merger of two smaller rivals -- First Securities Co (第一證券) and Far Eastern Securities Co (遠東證券) -- on Feb. 27.
■ Card debt talks succeeding
Negotiations on credit-card debt repayment have a success rate of more than 80 percent so far, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Kong Jaw-Sheng (龔照勝) said yesterday. "Out of the 14,000 card-debt inquiries from borrowers, 7,041 of 8,773 negotiations were successful, involving capital exceeding NT$10 billion," he said. Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) staff said that they receive 300 to 400 telephone inquiries about debt negotiations a day, and that the bank has resolved 300 cases so far. The commission said it receives around 1,000 phone calls a day from borrowers requesting credit-card debt talks with banks.
■ NT dollar slips
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.027 to close at NT$32.310 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$940 million.
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
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
INDUSTRY LEADER: INDUSTRY LEADER: 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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