TAIEX rallies after low start
The TAIEX opened lower yesterday on concerns of foreign exchange losses in the electronics sector, but rebounded later to finish in positive territory.
The benchmark index hit the day’s low of 7,731.32 less than 15 minutes into the session before rallying to close up 4.82 points, or 0.06 percent, at the day’s high of 7,823.97. Turnover was NT$73.8 billion (US$2.54 billion). In all, 1,924 stocks closed up, 2,874 closed down and 442 remained unchanged.
Among the market’s eight major categories, cement shares fell 0.4 percent, plastics and chemical stocks fell 0.5 percent, food stocks lost 0.1 percent and textile shares fell 0.3 percent.
Machinery and electronics shares gained 0.2 percent, construction shares closed up 1 percent and financial stocks rose 0.4 percent. Paper and pulp shares remained unchanged.
Garment trade surplus down
Taiwan posted a garment trade surplus of US$8.5 billion last year, down 7.1 percent from the US$9.15 billion posted a year earlier, the Taiwan Textile Federation said yesterday.
Garment exports fell 7 percent last year to US$11.82 billion from US$12.72 billion in 2011, the federation said, citing statistics from the Ministry of Finance. Imports totaled US$3.32 billion last year, also down 7 percent from US$3.57 billion the year before, the federation said.
FAT to launch new China routes
Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT, 遠東航空) will operate charter services to the northern China autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia during the Lunar New Year holiday next month, the company said yesterday.
Three flights are scheduled to depart on Feb. 9, Feb. 16 and Feb. 23 from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to the Inner Mongolian capital of Hohhot.
Three flights bound for Ningxia’s capital, Yinchuan, are to depart on Feb. 7, Feb. 14 and Feb. 21, the airline said.
Hohhot and Yinchuan are among eight new destinations which will include: Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, Xining and Hailar in Qinghai Province, Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Weihai in Shandong Province and Urumchi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
IT spending set to increase
Information technology (IT) spending worldwide is expected to increase 4.2 percent to US$3.7 trillion this year from last year, researcher Gartner Inc said.
In the Asia-Pacific region, IT spending is forecast to rise by an annual 7.1 percent to US$733 billion, driven by increasing demand in the software market, Gartner said.
However, spending on PCs may be dragged down by price competition in the market for tablets and smaller devices, Gartner added.
Electronics price top searches
A ranking of product searches showed that computer, communication and consumer electronics are the items whose prices consumers most frequently search for, information compiled by EZprice (比價網) showed.
EZprice, an online company offering shopping and price comparison guidance, used keywords to find which brands are most frequently searched for. The top five most searched for brands were: Sony Corp, Samsung Electronics Co, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Apple Inc and Panasonic Corp.
NT dollar loses to greenback
The New Taiwan dollar closed lower against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.019 to close at NT$29.058.
Turnover totaled about US$700 million during the trading session.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
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