TAIEX up 1.86 percent
Taiwanese shares closed 1.86 percent higher yesterday as the country's currency continued to strengthen and Wall Street rose overnight, dealers said.
Some investors said a liquidity-driven upswing is likely to continue in the run-up to the March 22 presidential election, they said.
The weighted index closed up 154.41 points at the day's high of 8,462.08, off a low of 8,362.94, on turnover of NT$177.10 billion (US$5.67 billion).
Risers led decliners 1,410 to 582, with 354 stocks unchanged. A total of 47 stocks closed limit-up and 17 were limit-down.
The Taipei bourse has gained 10.27 percent since it resumed trading on Feb. 12 after the Lunar New Year holiday.
BMW cuts more jobs
Luxury car maker BMW AG said yesterday it will cut another 5,600 jobs by the end of this year, on top of 2,500 other positions that have already been eliminated, as it moves to pare expenses amid a wider cost-cutting program.
Speaking to reporters in Munich, Germany, where the company is based, BMW head of personnel Ernst Baumann said that the jobs being cut included 2,500 full-time workers and 2,500 temporary workers, along with 600 other positions in Germany and elsewhere.
He said that another 2,500 positions had already been eliminated, bringing the total number of cuts and planned cuts to 8,100.
In Germany, BMW has between 6,000 and 8,000 temporary workers. Worldwide, BMW employs just under 108,000 workers, company figures showed.
HP, Foxconn in Russia
Hewlett-Packard Co and Foxconn International Holdings (富士康) agreed with Eurasia Logistics, a Russian developer and operator of logistic centers, to build a US$50 million computer assembly plant near St. Petersburg.
Foxconn, the world's largest maker of handsets, bought a 12 hectare plot in the Kolpino industrial park in the Leningrad region, Eurasia Logistics said late yesterday in a statement on its Web site.
The plant is scheduled to open early next year and will make Hewlett-Packard personal computers, the statement said.
FET expects drop in profits
Far Eastone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信), the nation's third-largest telephone company, forecast profit before tax would fall 8 percent in the current quarter from the previous three-month period as expenses climbed and investment income dropped.
Pretax profit in the first quarter will fall to NT$3 billion from NT$3.26 billion in the three months ended on Dec. 31, Taipei-based Far Eastone said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Sales could rise 4.3 percent to NT$12.74 billion.
Operating expenses will rise almost 9 percent to NT$3.44 billion, and investment gains from selling assets will fall 75 percent to NT$45.4 million, the company said.
This would be the second straight decline in quarter-on-quarter pretax profit for the company.
MOEA pushes biotech sector
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday it aimed to promote the nation's biotechnology development through its cooperation with the private sector.
"The MOEA has invited some 20 companies to form a service platform, in a bid to integrate the various sources that is essential to the development of the biotech industry," James Chen (陳韋呈), manager of the ministry's biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries program, said at a press briefing.
The majority of Taiwan's biotechnology firms are of small and medium-sized, which has led to a lack of professionals in the fields of legal issues, patents, marketing and technology management.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
RSS