Shares close higher
Taiwanese shares prices closed 1.07 percent higher yesterday on regional market gains and a government bid to ease curbs on local firms investing in China, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 79.19 points to 7,509.17 on turnover of NT$125.24 billion (US$3.89 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,759 to 751, while 203 shares were unchanged.
The market opened slightly higher and gained momentum as investors continued to push semiconductor share prices higher. Despite the market’s continued rise, analysts forecast a correction following the breach of the 7,500-point level.
“The positive factors of the fourth quarter which investors have referred to have been reflected in prices,” said Alex Huang (黃國偉) of Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投信), adding 7,500 could be “the peak of the year.”
Vouchers remain uncashed
More than NT$1.8 billion (US$56.2 million) in consumption vouchers remained uncashed as of yesterday, the last day before they were due to expire, the latest statistics released by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) showed.
Nearly NT$190 million in vouchers were cashed on Tuesday, the statistics showed.
The economic stimulus package, launched amid the worldwide economic recession and financial crisis, saw the government issuing NT$3,600 in consumption vouchers to every citizen from Jan. 18, a move intended to stimulate private spending.
As of Tuesday, vouchers worth NT$81.45 billion had been cashed, accounting for 97.82 percent of the total NT$83.265 billion issued, CEPD tallies showed.
Cross-strait MOU expected
Taiwan and China are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cross-strait cooperation on financial supervision next month, Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance chairman Shea Jia-dong (許嘉棟) said yesterday.
“The signing of such an MOU has been delayed for a long time because of its political sensitivity rather than because of difficulties encountered by the two sides in working out its contents,” Shea said without elaborating.
Kaohsiung gas unit to close
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) will close a gasoline-producing unit at its Kaohsiung plant for three months, a company official said.
The fluid catalytic cracker will be shut early this month, said an official, who declined to be identified because of company policy. The unit is able to process 25,000 barrels of fuel a day, according to data previously provided by CPC.
Japan sets travel fair record
Consumers may prefer to cut down on their spending and choose not to travel far this year, but the upcoming Taipei International Travel Fair hopes to change their minds.
This year, there are a total of 58 countries taking part in the fair, with the Japan Pavilion making a new record with 74 booths, the organizer, Taiwan Visitors Association (台灣觀光協會), said in a statement yesterday.
First timers to the exposition include the Republic of Maldives, Croatia and the Republic of Tunisia. The Travel Fair’s booths were all filled in May, just two months after registration opened, the statement said.
The fair will be held at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1 from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2. The fair ushered in a total of 210,000 visitors last year. Despite the conservative spending sentiment, Taiwan Visitors Association hopes to draw around 200,000 people this year.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
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SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
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