Greek politics weigh on TAIEX
The TAIEX pulled back yesterday as optimism that there would be a bailout plan for the banking system in Spain faded, renewing concerns over the debt crisis in the eurozone, dealers said.
Market attention shifted back to the June 17 parliamentary elections in debt-ridden Greece as the results could lead to the country’s exit from the eurozone if the anti-austerity camp gains the upper hand, they said.
The weighted index closed down 48.15 points, or 0.68 percent at 7,072.08, after moving between 7,026.27 and 7,076.37. Turnover during the session totaled NT$47.13 billion (US$1.57 billion).
At the end of the session, the cement sector suffered the heaviest losses among the eight major sectors of the market, finishing down 0.98 percent.
Acer sees monthly sales rise
PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) saw its share price close up 1.32 percent at NT$30.70 yesterday after the company reported a 27 percent increase in non-consolidated sales for last month from the previous month.
Acer on Monday posted NT$32.11 billion in non-consolidated sales last month, up 27 percent month-on-month, but down 10 percent from a year earlier.
In the first five months of this year, the company recorded NT$153.87 billion in non-consolidated sales, down 7 percent from a year earlier.
According to Acer, it has maintained cautious expectations for the second quarter, saying sales and shipments for the April to June period will stay little changed from the first quarter, but its operating margin is expected to rise to 0.5 percent from 0.1 percent.
Luxgen expands in China
Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), a subsidiary of Yulon Group (裕隆集團), said yesterday it will launch new models in China in the second half of this year and increase its number of distribution outlets to 200 from the current 70 by the end of this year to boost company sales there.
Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) president Chen Kuo-rong (陳國榮) said that since Luxgen introduced its first SUV model to the Chinese market in September last year, orders by Chinese buyers for more than 18,000 units had been received by the end of April.
Production of Luxgen models in China is expected to reach 45,000 to 50,000 units this year and, to boost sales, the automaker is planning to increase its number of distribution outlets in China.
Chen said production of Luxgen cars in China is expected to hit 120,000 units next year and increase further to 240,000 in the future as the company aims to launch eight to 10 new models to stir up buying.
Taipei 20th-best city to visit
Taipei retained 20th place for the second consecutive year in an annual report published on Monday by MasterCard Worldwide on visitor traffic and cross-border travel spending in 132 city destinations throughout the world.
London was ranked the world’s top city destination for the second year running, with Paris, Bangkok, Singapore, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Madrid, Dubai, Frankfurt and Kuala Lumpur rounding out the top 10.
Seoul, Rome, New York, Shanghai, Barcelona, Milan, Amsterdam, Vienna, Beijing and Taipei were ranked 11th to 20th, in that order.
NT dollar drops on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.071 to close at NT$29.991.
Turnover totaled US$569 million during the trading session.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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