TAIEX edges higher
Share prices closed higher yesterday, with the TAIEX index moving up 25.72 points, or 0.31 percent, to close at 8,117.75.
The local bourse opened at 8,149.76 and fluctuated between a low of 8,092.94 and a high of 8,152.53 during the day’s trading. Market turnover totaled NT$105.91 billion (US$3.36 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,625 to 1,468, with 285 stocks remaining unchanged.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$ 3.55 billion worth of shares.
Giant to invest in China plant
Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械), the world’s largest bicycle maker by revenue, said yesterday it plans to invest an initial US$36 million in a new bicycle and electric car plant in eastern China.
Giant said it will start building the plant, located in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, before the end of June. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.5 million bicycles once it becomes operational next year, the company said.
“The 36 million dollars will be spent on the bicycle production facilities. In the second stage, we will invest additional funds in electric car manufacturing,” company spokesman Hsu Li-chung (許立忠) said.
Apart from bicycle and electric car manufacturing, the new Kunshan plant will produce bicycle frames and carbon fiber, Hsu said.
Giant currently operates five factories in China, producing bicycles, electric cars and aluminum alloy.
Chunghwa Q1 profit up 12%
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest phone operator, posted a 12 percent rise in first-quarter profit as it boosted revenue in its fiber-optic and mobile Internet businesses and cut costs.
Net income climbed to NT$12.1 billion compared with NT$10.79 billion a year earlier, the Taipei-based company said in a statement yesterday.
Chunghwa forecast a profit of NT$11.3 billion on Feb. 9, while analysts expected NT$11 billion, according to the median of four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Asustek raises Asint stake
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which made the world’s first netbook computer, said yesterday it increased its holding in local computer memory module company Asint Technology Corp (昱聯科技) amid rising memory chip prices.
The company said it bought another 8.33 percent share of Asint in January via its fully-owned investment fund, bringing its total holding to about 25 percent, up from 16.67 percent.
Another major shareholder is local chip designer Silicon Integrated Systems Corp (矽統科技), which holds about a 20 percent stake in Asint.
WiMAX Forum opens in Taipei
An international organization that focuses on WiMAX wireless technology will open its third annual trade show today in Taipei.
WiMAX Forum Congress Asia, which runs through tomorrow at the Taipei International Convention Center, will be held in Taiwan for the first time.
The event is expected to be attended by more than 2,000 representatives from around the world, according to the WiMAX Forum Web site. It will also feature a Taiwanese pavilion in association with the semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute to showcase local WiMAX technology.
NT dollar posts slight gain
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.055 to close at NT$31.560. Turnover was US$942 million.
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
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
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
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
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