Share prices closed 0.51 percent lower yesterday after Wall Street extended losses overnight ahead of the release of a series of US economic data and comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, dealers said.
The market was also affected after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was indicted for corruption, they said.
The weighted index lost 39.53 points at 7,736.83, off a high of 7,800.87 and a low of 7,725.81, on turnover of NT$81.05 billion (US$2.46 billion).
"The market extended its recent pattern of rangebound consolidation with a negative bias as people got ready for a market break of almost two weeks," SinoPac Securities (永豐金證券) assistant vice president Alvin Teng (鄧可欣) said.
Today is the last day of trading before the market closes for the Lunar New Year holidays. It reopens on Feb. 26.
Ma's indictment was expected to depress the market today, but his announcement that he would still run for the presidency would ease the blow, Mega Securities Corp (兆豐證券) assistant vice president Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
Without the announcement, "The benchmark TAIEX may lose more than 100 points [today], with stocks related to investments in China likely to see the heaviest selling," Huang said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) fell NT$1.20 at NT$65.80 and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) was down NT$0.45 at NT$19.95.
Makers of thin-film transistor LCD panels were mostly lower, while DRAM makers were largely higher. AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) was down NT$1.05 at NT$47.05 and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子)fell NT$0.40 to NT$32.60.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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