TAIEX closes above 7,900
The TAIEX staged a rebound yesterday to close above the 7,900-point level as investors took cues from a rising Wall Street overnight and comebacks on other regional markets, dealers said.
Bargain hunters took advantage of the market’s 1.22 percent dive on Monday by buying financial and high-tech stocks, helping the broader market overcome technical hurdles ahead of 7,900 points, they said.
The weighted index closed up 65.37 points, or 0.83 percent, at 7,932.71, after moving between 7,882.56 and 7,939.85, on turnover of NT$91.88 billion (US$3.09 billion).
DRAM prices hit 20-month high
Spot market prices for a benchmark DRAM chip hit a 20-month high of US$1.52 (NT$45.14) on Monday, according to the latest report released by Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
The spot market price of the benchmark DDR3 2Gb DRAM rose 5.55 percent in the first two business days this month from the end of last month. The 5.5 percent increase followed a 34.6 percent jump in prices in the first two months of this year from the end of last year, TrendForce said.
New Media User Lab launched
The New Media User Lab was launched on Monday as part of efforts to provide an alternative to Taiwan’s widely used TV audience survey by AGB Nielsen.
Jointly organized by local industry group Cloud & Connect TV Forum and the state-run Institute for Information Industry, the new platform aims to regularly offer audience rating surveys on a wider range of media, such as digital TVs, connected TVs and smart TVs.
Sixty-six local companies, including cable TV operators, academic institutions, content providers and media agencies, have applied to join the lab, which uses set-top boxes to rapidly collect samples through cloud-computing technology, the forum said.
The lab has established a sample pool of 150,000 nationwide users and the numbers are expected to grow to 300,000 next year with more cable system operators joining the platform, it said.
Buyers invited to meetings
Taiwan has invited 600 international buyers from 60 economies to attend procurement meetings in Taipei on March 28 in a bid to strengthen the country’s exports, Taiwan’s main trade promotions body said on Monday.
One-on-one procurement meetings with domestic businesses will be arranged for the 600 potential foreign buyers, and they are expected to generate US$4.6 billion in business opportunities, about US$100 million more than last year, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council said.
The foreign buyers invited by the council are mainly in the information and communications technology, machinery, solar energy, LED and automobile parts and components sectors.
Forex reserves stable
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to US$404.08 billion as of the end of last month, a decrease of US$2.48 billion from January, maintaining the nation’s position as having the world’s fourth-largest foreign exchange reserves behind China, Japan and Russia, the central bank said yesterday.
“The euro and other major currencies depreciated against the US dollar last month, making a decrease in foreign exchange reserves greater than the returns from foreign exchange reserves management,” said Lin Sun-yuan (林孫源), director-general of the bank’s department of foreign exchange.
The market value of securities investments and New Taiwan dollar deposits held by foreign investors reached US$225.2 billion at the end of last month, equivalent to 56 percent of foreign exchange reserves, the bank said.
NT dollar up NT$0.05
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.05 to close at NT$29.720.
Turnover totaled US$766 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
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,
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,
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