TAIEX sheds 12 points
Taiwan shares closed 0.17 percent lower yesterday on mixed signals for different sectors, dealers said.
The weighted index dropped 12.25 points to 7,322.93 on turnover of NT$79.13 billion (US$2.43 billion).
However, gainers outnumbered losers 1,388 to 1,035, while 295 stocks remained unchanged.
A total of 25 shares surged to their daily 7 percent limit, against 18 limit-down.
“While investors were reluctant to build up their portfolio, they did not want to dump their shares at low levels,” said Chen Yu-yu (陳育娛) of Capital Securities (群益證券).
Allianz bullish on Taiwan
Taiwanese stocks will offer one of the best returns in Asia next year as corporate earnings improve with warming cross-strait relations, Allianz SE said.
The signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China could help Taiwanese companies expand beyond their home market, boosting the outlook for profits, said Nikhil Srinivasan, who oversees about US$25 billion as Singapore-based chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East at Europe’s biggest insurer.
“Taiwan is a buy story as the economic and commercial assumptions from cross-strait ties are positive for the market,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
“Once the agreement is signed, there’s going to be a re-rating on Taiwanese stocks in terms of price-earnings multiple over the next 12 months,” Srinivasan said.
Credit bad loan ratio improves
The nation’s credit card bad-loan ratio improved slightly in September, declining to 1.09 percent from the previous month’s 1.21 percent, statistics released by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed yesterday.
A total of 31.24 million credit cards from 38 issuers were in circulation as of the end of September, with revolving credit loans amounting to NT$216.4 billion, and cash-advance loans totaling NT$116.4 billion.
Thirty-seven card issuers imposed a bad loan ratio of below 3 percent, but Chinfon Commercial Bank’s (慶豐銀行) bad loan ratio was 5.69 percent in September, the commission said.
The nation’s cash card bad loan ratio also declined to 2.628 percent in September from the previous month’s 2.782 percent, the commission said.
About 940,000 cash cards issued by 18 banks were in effect in September, with total lending reaching NT$70.2 billion, the data showed.
Of the 18 issuers, DBS Group Holdings Ltd (星展銀行), Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) and Chinfon had a bad loan ratio of 3.792 percent, 19.766 percent and 30.84 percent respectively, it said.
LG to set up LCD fab in China
South Korea’s LG Display said yesterday it had signed an agreement to help set up a US$4 billion fab to make liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels in southeast China.
The company, the world’s second-largest flat panel maker, said production from the plant in Guangzhou would begin in 2012 to meet growing demand for one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for flat-screen televisions.
A joint venture will be set up, with LG owning 70 percent and the remainder held by Guangzhou and a Chinese LCD TV maker.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.022 to close at NT$32.575. Turnover was US$907 million.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
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