Investors stay on the sidelines
Cautious sentiment about inflation in China drove many investors to the sidelines yesterday as selling emerged in late trade in select stocks that have close business ties with China, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 8.48 points, or 0.09 percent, at 9,040.77, after moving between 9,021.36 and 9,099.75 on turnover of NT$131.95 billion (US$4.55 billion).
Ma invites Yahoo to set up HQ
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday invited Yahoo to set up an Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Taiwan, which he touted as the “center of East Asia.”
Ma said Taiwan was not inferior to Singapore, site of Yahoo’s regional headquarters for Southeast Asia.
“We have very strong competitiveness, especially in terms of our connections with Northeast Asia,” Ma said while receiving Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz.
He told Bartz that Taiwan wants to become the global headquarters of Taiwanese businesses and a regional headquarters for foreign-based multinational enterprises, as well as a world leader in innovation. Ma said Yahoo could assist Taiwan in achieving these goals.
He pointed to Taiwan’s geographical proximity to China, the world’s second-largest economy. In addition, Taiwan’s tax competitiveness has been sharpened significantly after the corporate income tax rate was cut from 25 percent to 17 percent last year to a level similar to that of Hong Kong and Singapore, he said.
Delta approves purchases
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the world’s largest switching power supplier, yesterday reported a first-quarter net income of NT$3.1 billion, or NT$1.3 per share.
Sales were NT$40.2 billion, the company said in a statement.
The board also approved subsidiary Delta International Holding Ltd’s plans to purchase a 100 percent stake in Boom Treasure Ltd and Ace Pillar Holding Co, in a move to own the companies’ combined 28.8 percent stake in Delta Greentech (China) Co (中達電通).
After the transaction, Delta will indirectly own about 84 percent of Delta Greentech.
Hon Hai’s profits drop
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), a contract manufacturer for Apple Inc’s iPhone and Hewlett-Packard Co computers, on Wednesday posted its largest drop in quarterly profit for two years after higher salaries added to costs.
Fourth-quarter net income dropped 26 percent to NT$21.4 billion, according to Bloomberg data based on full-year earnings from the Taipei-based company.
Consolidated fourth-quarter revenue climbed 56 percent to a record NT$947 billion. Full-year profit climbed 1.9 percent to NT$77.2 billion and consolidated revenue was 53 percent higher at NT$3 trillion.
Quarterly net income dropped 65 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 when the global financial crisis cut demand for computers and electronics.
NPL ratio hits new low
The nation’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio fell to a new low of 0.55 percent at the end of last month, from 0.58 percent at the end of February, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
Total bad loans amounted to NT$113.1 billion, shrinking NT$5.5 billion from the previous month, the commission said.
None of the nation’s 37 domestic lenders had a bad loan ratio above 2 percent of their overall lending, raising their average coverage ratio 10.04 percentage points to 172.35 percent, it said.
Profit shrinks at Macronix
Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏電子) yesterday reported net profit of NT$1.06 billion in the first quarter, down 35 percent year-on-year and 5 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Gross margin dropped to 42 percent, compared with 47 percent a year ago and 54 percent the previous quarter, hitting the high end of the company’s previous estimate.
The company said revenue would drop to between NT$6.5 billion and NT$6.4 billion this quarter, from NT$6.57 billion last quarter, because of weakening demand for its ROM chips.
Gross margin would slide further to as low as 34 percent this quarter from last quarter’s 42 percent, it said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
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