Share prices close higher
Taiwanese share prices closed higher yesterday, with the weighted index, the market’s key barometer, moving up 12.84 points, or 0.16 percent, to close at 8,025.93.
The local bourse opened at 8,046.29 and fluctuated between a low of 8,021.91 and a high of 8,050.99 during the day’s trading.
Market turnover was NT$108.12 billion (US$3.41 billion).
Five of the eight major stock categories lost ground, with textile issues dropping the most at 0.36 percent. Construction shares plunged 0.25 percent, paper and pulp issues were down 0.19 percent, foodstuff shares moved down 0.05 percent and banking and financial stocks were down 0.02 percent.
Two of the major stock categories gained ground, with cement issues gaining the most at 0.42 percent and machinery and electronics stocks rising 0.21 percent.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$8.47 billion in shares.
Far EasTone forecasts boost
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳) forecasts revenue to climb 11.1 percent to NT$59.7 billion (US$1.88 billion) this year, with earnings per share of NT$2.85, the Taipei-based company said in a filing to the Taiwan stock exchange yesterday.
Far EasTone estimates its pre-tax profit may fall 7.4 percent to NT$11.7 billion this year because of higher operational costs on promotions and the establishment of the 3G stations, the statement said.
Mediatek to offer 3G platform
Mediatek Inc (聯發科), Taiwan’s largest chip designer, plans to offer a software and hardware platform for third-generation phones using Google Inc’s Android operating system by the end of this year, Sophia Liang (梁厚誼), an investor relations official at the company, said yesterday.
Mediatek will have a design that will include wireless communication chips, touch-screens and related software to allow clients to make their own Android handset, Liang said.
Soft-World to distribute JX World
Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技) won a licensing agreement from Kingsoft Corp (金山在線) through a subsidiary to distribute the JX World (劍俠世界) online game in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, the Kaohsiung-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
No Sumitomo decision yet
Taiwan’s Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) said the board had not reached any decision to sell a stake to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc and declined to comment on a report by the Economic Daily News, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan stock exchange.
The Chinese-lanugage newspaper yesterday reported Sumitomo Mistui plans to invest in Chinatrust Financial by buying shares through a private placement offered by the Taipei-based company.
NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar advanced, capping a weekly gain, as overseas investors added to their holdings of the nation’s shares for a sixth straight day amid speculation a trade accord with China will boost earnings.
Global funds plowed more than a US$1 billion into local equities this week.
“The Taiwan dollar is still on a rising trend,” said Henry Lin, a currency trader at Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行) in Taipei. “The China trade issue is attracting overseas funds.”
The local dollar strengthened 0.1 percent to NT$31.759 against its US counterpart as of 4pm local time, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
It advanced 0.4 percent this week and touched an 18-month high of NT$31.667 on March 18.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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