TAIEX closes up 0.78%
The TAIEX closed up 0.78 percent yesterday, cheered by Wall Street gains on Friday and stronger Asian stock markets in the morning, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 60.74 points, to close at 7,890.95, after fluctuating between 7,841.83 and 7,902.56, on turnover of NT$127.78 billion (US$4.01 billion).
The market opened up 0.63 percent after Wall Street shares were boosted by positive job figures on Friday, with most local electronic shares performing quite well, dealers said.
A total of 2,497 stocks closed up and 1,299 down, with 337 remaining unchanged.
HTC revenues dip
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s leading maker of smartphones, yesterday said revenues edged lower by 1.8 percent to NT$24.2 billion last month from July.
On an annual basis, last month’s revenues more than doubled from NT$11.23 billion in the same month of last year.
Cumulative consolidated revenues from January to last month were NT$ 147.7 billion, up 61.16 percent from last year.
HTC is forecast to hit NT$70 billion for third-quarter sales, and 70 percent of the target has been achieved judging from July’s and last month’s figures.
AmTRAN acquires loans
AmTRAN Technology Co (瑞軒科技) signed NT$3.8 billion of three-year syndicated loans with five banks, participating lender Mega Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The maker of Vizio televisions will use the funds to repay debts and to strengthen medium-term working capital, according to the statement.
The other lenders include Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商業銀行), E Sun Commercial Bank Ltd (玉山銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), and Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank Ltd ( 上海商業銀行).
Central bank issues CDs
The central bank issued NT$469.5 billion in certificates of deposit (CD) yesterday, less than the NT$474.9 billion that matured, it said in a statement on its Web site.
The central bank sold 30-day CDs at an interest rate of 0.63 percent, 91-day at 0.67 percent, and 182-day at 0.77 percent, according to the statement.
Talks to price iron monthly
The China Iron & Steel Association (中國鋼鐵工業協會) is in talks with iron ore producers seeking to price the raw material on a monthly basis, according to China Minmetals Corp (中國五礦公司), the People’s Republic of China’s biggest metals trader.
A move to monthly pricing from quarterly would increase the chance of Chinese steelmakers defaulting on contracts, Minmetals’s vice president Feng Guiquan (馮貴權) said yesterday at a conference in Beijing.
NT dollar up against greenback
The NT dollar gained the most in five weeks before data this week that economists forecast will show exports rose for a 10th successive month last month.
The currency rose for a fourth straight day after overseas investors bought US$221 million more shares than they sold yesterday, their biggest net purchase in more than a month.
The Ministry of Finance was due to announce today that overseas shipments increased 25 percent, compared with a gain of 38.5 percent in July, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
The NT dollar climbed 0.2 percent to NT$31.95 against its US counterpart as of the 4pm close, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
The currency earlier rose as much as 0.5 percent, the most since last Thursday, to NT$31.86.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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