NT dollar dips 0.6 percent
The New Taiwan dollar completed its biggest weekly decline since March, as demand for the greenback increased after US Federal Reserve officials raised their forecast for US borrowing costs.
The NT dollar dropped 0.6 percent this week, the most since the five days ending March 21, to close at NT$30.258 against the US dollar yesterday. The local currency declined NT$0.002 from Thursday.
Global investors cut holdings of Taiwanese equities for an eighth day yesterday, paring this quarter’s net inflow to US$2.7 billion, compared with US$7.3 billion in the three months through June, data compiled by the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
“Taiwan’s dollar has felt the impact of the US dollar,” Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) economist Cindy Yu (尤敏君) said. “Foreign investors’ net purchases of Taiwanese stocks have fallen. Equities had risen to pretty high levels earlier, so investors may be taking profit now.”
Advantech buys stake in Allied
Industrial computer maker Advantech Co (研華) has acquired a 4.5 percent stake in Allied Circuit Co (博智) for about NT$71.71 million (US$2.37 million) through a private placement.
That would make Advantech the second-largest shareholder of the Taoyuan-based supplier of printed circuit boards, after Compal Electronics Co’s (仁寶) nearly 20 percent.
Buoyed by the news, Allied Circuit rose by the daily limit, closing at NT$37.85 yesterday.
Allied Circuit reported a net profit of NT$69.31 million in the first half of this year, up 80.37 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$1.67.
Innolux profits from shares sale
Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s top LCD panel maker, said it made NT$90.67 million in profit from selling 8.63 million shares of Chi Mei Materials Technology Corp (奇美材).
Chi Mei Materials makes polarizers used in flat panels.
Innolux sold Chi Mei Materials shares at NT$36.19 each, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday. That represented a 1.66 percent discount on Chi Mei Materials’ closing price of NT$36.80 on Thursday.
After the share disposal, Innolux has an 8.7 percent stake in Chi Mei Materials.
NDF finalizes profit-sharing plan
The state-run National Development Fund said on Thursday it finalized a plan to share between 15 percent and 80 percent of profits with venture-capital firms while jointly investing in Taiwanese startups.
The plan will be implemented after it is approved by the Cabinet at the end of this month at the earliest, the National Development Council said.
The council will review the plan three years after its implementation, it added.
Mobile cloud sales to rise: MIC
Sales of mobile cloud technology-based software and services in Taiwan are expected to increase 14.1 percent year-on-year to NT$20.34 billion next year, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said in a research report released on Thursday.
Taiwan will ride the wave of the continued expansion of the global mobile cloud technology-based market and sales in the local market are forecast to increase to almost NT$26 billion in 2017, the government-funded research institute said.
Overall, sales of the global mobile cloud technology-based market is expected to surpass US$150 billion in 2017, it added.
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
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
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
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