TAIEX rises on eurozone hope
The TAIEX rose yesterday on the back of rotational buying, as investors embraced hopes that Germany would support a plan to expand the European bailout fund to resolve the debt crisis in the eurozone, dealers said.
However, turnover shrank amid lingering caution over the sluggish global demand that has greatly affected Taiwan’s high tech exports, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 35.63 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 7,182.61, after moving between 7,061.01 and 7,218.57, on turnover of NT$91.64 billion (US$3.01 billion).
TWSE launching mechanism
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said yesterday it would launch a simulation mechanism to match orders five minutes before market close (1:25pm to 1:30pm), in a bid to reinforce market information disclosure.
The new mechanism is scheduled to start on Feb. 20 next year, the TWSE said. Under the new system, whenever a stock rises or falls more than 3.5 percent in the simulation, orders will not be matched by 1:30pm, but trade of the stock will be suspended for two minutes from 1:31pm so that investors can adjust their bidding or ask for or even cancel orders, the TWSE said.
All banks pass stress tests
All 36 domestic banks passed the stress tests conducted from April, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement yesterday.
The lenders’ average capital adequacy and tier-one capital ratios were higher than the minimum requirements of 8 percent and 4 percent respectively, it said.
HTC launching Beats phone
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, yesterday announced its first smartphone incorporating Beats Electronics LCC’s audio technology would be available in Taiwan next month.
The Sensation XE is an upgraded version of its flagship Sensation model launched in June.
Users could opt to enjoy optimal sound by clicking “Beats audio” on the selection mode when listening to the music and watching video clips. It claimed Beats audio offers sound quality that matches studio recording levels.
HTC also collaborates with Beats for in-ear headphones for the Sensation XE. HTC recently acquired a controlling stake in Beats.
U-Ming sees tough year ahead
U-Ming Marine Transport Corp (裕民航運), the Taiwanese operator of dry-bulk ships, expects next year to be a “difficult year” for the market because of the launch of more large ships and higher iron-ore production in China.
“Next year there will be another wave of big ships coming in,” U-Ming president C.K. Ong (王書吉) said on Wednesday in Singapore.
It is “going to be a difficult year,” he said.
NT dollar falls slightly
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.03 to close at NT$30.440.
Turnover totaled US$764 million during the trading session.
Chinatrust delists in Philippines
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀) on Thursday announced it would delist its subsidiary on the Philippines’ bourse, a decision that still needs regulatory approval there.
The lender attributed the delisting to Philippine’s stock exchange regulation changes that set a 10 percent minimum for shares in circulation for all listed firms there.
Chinatrust owns 99.41 percent shares in the subsidiary and sees no need to meet the new requirement given the thin trading volume for its shares for the past year, the statement said.
It owns 24 branches in the Philippines and set up the subsidiary in 1995.
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
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
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
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