TELECOMS
T Star offers Xiaomi phone
Taiwan Star Telecom Co (T Star, 台灣之星), one of the nation’s 4G wireless service providers, yesterday said it would launch Xiaomi Corp’s (小米) latest smartphone, the Xiaomi 2, for local consumers for free if they sign up to a 30-month service contract with a minimum monthly fee of NT$599. It is the first time Taiwan Star has offered a Xiaomi phone. The Xiaomi 2, which supports 4G technology, features a 4.7-inch screen and runs on Qualcomm Inc’s quadruple-core chipset. The phone will be available from Thursday next week in Taiwan Star’s stores. Taiwan Star also said store visitors grew 20 percent during the Lunar New Year holiday, helping boost its sales of smartphones such as Samsung’s Galaxy E7.
BROKERAGES
TAIEX likely to keep rising
Cathay Futures Corp (國泰期貨), a subsidiary of Cathay Securities Corp (國泰證券), yesterday said that the benchmark TAIEX is likely to extend its uptrend next month, based on its track record over the past 15 years. Historical data show that the benchmark index has a 66.7 percent chance of rising next month, only lower than the probability of 80 percent for an increase recorded in December last year, the company said in a statement released yesterday. However, the outlook for the second quarter is less rosy as seasonal weakness in the electronics sector, as well as adjustments of investors’ portfolios before the dividend distribution season in June, may increase uncertainties for the nation’s securities market, the firm said. Historical data show that the securities market has less than a 50 percent chance of rising in the second quarter, it said.
INVESTMENT
Chinese deals approved
The Investment Commission yesterday said it had approved three companies’ China-bound investments. Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥) gained approval to invest US$156.56 million to acquire a 75.74 percent stake in a Chinese cement company based in Hunan Province, the commission said in a statement. Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑工業) also received the commission’s approval to invest US$75 million in a Chinese stainless steel company in Fujian, it said. Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s top power supply maker, was approved by the commission to invest a total of US$329 million in four Chinese electronics companies via a third-party company — Lombard International PCC Ltd, the commission said. Investment Commission acting executive secretary Emile Chang (張銘斌) said the commission also rejected a Chinese company’s planned investment in a Taiwanese electronics company because the Chinese firm has a military background. Chang refused to disclose the name of the company, citing national security reasons.
ELECTRONICS
Acer wins iF Design Award
Computer vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said its C205 LED light and portable projector has won a German iF Design Award in the audio and video category. “Winning this coveted award reflects the jury’s recognition of outstanding achievements in design quality, finish, choice of materials, degree of innovation, environmental impact and functionality, as well as universal design,” the company said in a statement. The Acer C205 carries a small footprint of just 144mm x 108mm, and weighs 0.3kg, making it “a great companion for mobile devices,” Acer said. The projector can also work cable-free with a built-in battery. Since 1953, the iF award has become synonymous for outstanding design around the world.
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
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
RSS