TAIEX drops on profit taking
Shares closed down 0.43 percent yesterday on profit-taking following a spate of rebounds fueled by Wall Street rallies and a decline in oil prices, dealers said. Technology shares continued to rally.
The TAIEX closed down 31.82 points to 7,293.80, off a high of 7,337.67 and a low of 7,260.12, on turnover of NT$122.51 billion (US$3.93 billion).
“Investors may take profit in technology shares in near-term if the Taiwan dollar continues strengthening, given no other catalyst,” said Scott Hsu, a trader at KGI Securities (中信證券).
TSMC buyback plan okayed
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that its board had approved a NT$16.5 billion share buyback plan to safeguard shareholders’ interests.
The repurchase program is separate from the multi-phase plan with shareholder Philips, and Philips will not use this program to sell its remaining stake in TSMC, spokesperson Lora Ho (何麗梅) said in a statement.
“The sole purpose of this buyback is to remove partially the dilution from employee profit sharing,” Ho said.
The chipmaker planned to repurchase as many as 283 million common shares, or about 1.08 percent of its total outstanding shares, at a price in the range of NT$42.85 to NT$86.2 per share between today and Oct. 12 on the open market.
TSMC will cancel those shares repurchased, the statements said.
Foxconn’s HK shares rally
Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康), the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of cellphones, rose the most in more than six months in Hong Kong trading after Merrill Lynch & Co (美林證券) raised its recommendation for the stock.
Foxconn climbed 16 percent to HK$8.97 (US$1.15) at the midday break, the biggest advance since Jan. 25. Yesterday’s increase followed a 9.5 percent jump on Monday.
The company, a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), may report improved second-half profitability as it boosts production of new phone models, Merrill Lynch analyst Tony Tseng (曾省吾) wrote in a report yesterday.
He raised his recommendation of the stock to “neutral” from “underperform” and cut the share-price estimate on an expected drop in first-half earnings.
Operating profit margin may widen to 5.3 percent in the second half, compared with an estimated 5 percent in the first half, he said.
Foxconn, based in Shenzhen, is the fourth-worst performing member on the Hang Seng Index this year. The stock had dropped 56 percent this year through Monday.
TSA inks pact with Indonesians
The Taiwan Securities Association (TSA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Jakarta with the Indonesia Securities Companies Association to boost cooperative ties, the ninth such memorandum it has signed, a TSA official said yesterday.
The two sides hope to boost the visibility of Asian stock markets and increase their exchange of information on investment laws and investor education and protection, the official said.
The MOU also aims to improve the speed and efficiency of securities transactions and increase investor discipline, the official said.
The association signed MOUs with Japanese, Mongolian and South Korean securities associations last year, and with its Thai, Vietnamese, German, Polish and Australian counterparts this year.
NT dollar slips
The New Taiwan dollar weakened by NT$0.023 yesterday to close at NT$31.189 against the greenback on turnover of US$902 million.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
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