TAIEX down 0.17 percent
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX falling 13.42 points, or 0.17 percent, to close at 7,585.3.
The local bourse opened at 7,630.1 and fluctuated between 7,560.89 and 7,637.99. Market turnover totaled NT$82.13 billion (US$2.58 billion).
Five of the major stock categories gained ground, with paper and pulp issues gaining the most at 0.69 percent, followed by financial and banking stocks at 0.5 percent. Cement issues rose 0.17 percent, foodstuff shares moved up 0.14 percent, and construction shares were up 0.04 percent.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net buyers of NT$94 million in shares.
Foreign firms may issue TDRs
The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) said yesterday that several US and Japan-listed companies might issue Taiwan depository receipts (TDRs) on the TAIEX this year.
An unidentified NASDAQ-listed company might submit an application as early as the third quarter of this year, TWSE chairman Schive Chi (薛琦) said after attending the listing ceremony of US-based integrated circuit designer Integrated Memory Logic Ltd (IML) — the first foreign company to have its initial public offering in Taiwan.
Schive said the company expressed strong interest in issuing TDRs at a business promotion event held by the TWSE in Hong Kong in which more than 100 listed companies with an average market capital of NT$50 billion participated.
Schive said 57 foreign companies have expressed interest in launching IPOs in Taiwan, and TPK Holding Co — a provider of touch technology products and services — might be the second foreign company to go public in Taiwan after the IML listing.
IML shares shot up 70 percent to close at NT$243 on their first trading day amid optimism over the company’s earnings outlook, analysts said.
Shanghai plan boosts airlines
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) rose in Taipei trading after the Taipei City Government Web site cited Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) as saying he aims to have direct flights between Taipei’s Songshan Airport and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport, hopefully by the middle of next month.
EVA stock gained 4.2 percent to close at NT$17.40 in Taipei, while China Airlines advanced almost 2 percent to close at NT$13.1.
China Telecom to offer Storm
Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) will start selling its BlackBerry Storm smartphone with China Telecom Corp (中國電信) as it tries to gain an edge over rival China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd (中國聯通), the local carrier of Apple Inc’s iPhone.
China Telecom is offering the touch-screen Storm for its business users, according to an e-mailed statement. The carrier will initially make the e-mail device available in 16 of China’s 31 provinces.
RIM is looking to Asia as sales growth there outstrips the US, where the company gets more than half its revenue. Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said in December that it will offer a handset customized for a locally developed Chinese technology with China Mobile.
The Storm, which debuted in the US in November 2008, was criticized for its screen design and early software glitches, prompting RIM to introduce the Storm2 last October.
NT dollar rebounds
One day after its sharp 0.8 percent decline, the New Taiwan dollar yesterday regained NT$0.122, or 0.38 percent, to close at NT$31.978 against the greenback on turnover of US$953 million.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
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