EQUITIES
TAIEX closes higher
Local shares yesterday closed higher, but the upturn was limited because of technical resistance and lingering concerns over trade frictions between the US and China. Investors sold off large-cap stocks in the bellwether electronics sector later in the session, forcing the broader market to give up most of its early gains, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 14.30 points, or 0.14 percent, at 10,398.41 on turnover of NT$106.001 billion (US$3.38 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$4.36 billion of shares, compared with a net sell of NT$10.45 billion on Friday last week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
INVESTMENT
Minister eyeing NT$100bn
Local businesses with overseas operations are expected to pour at least NT$100 billion into the domestic economy before the end of the year, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said yesterday. At a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Shen said he expects NT$400 billion to be invested over the next three years. So far this year, 55 Taiwanese companies have pledged to invest NT$288.4 billion in the nation, which would create jobs and boost the local economy, the ministry said last week.
SCOOTERS
Electric models double
The nation manufactured a record 91,000 electric scooters last year, almost double the number in 2017, the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported last week. The number has been on the rise since 2014, when only 5,062 scooters were manufactured, and it increased to 50,183 in 2017, the ministry said. The government in 2016 began offering incentives for people to replace gasoline-powered scooters with electric models, which helped push up the total number of scooters sold in the nation to 1.1 million in 2017, but the number dropped to 947,000 last year, the ministry said.
GAMING
Switch boosts local firms
Nvidia Corp’s comments last week about a positive outlook for Nintendo Co’s Switch gaming machine and gaming laptops are boding well for companies in the supply chain in the coming quarters, including chipmaker Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏電子) and sensor maker PixArt Imaging Inc (原相科技), as well as gaming computer developers Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) and Gigabyte Technology Corp (技嘉科技), Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said yesterday. The US-based maker of video game graphics chips last week reported better-than-expected profit for the first quarter and said the inventories situation had improved.
PANEL MAKERS
Rescue package in doubt
Japan Display Inc, a struggling supplier of screens for Apple Inc’s iPhone, needs to find an additional investor to get a ￥80 billion (US$727 million) rescue package from a group of Taiwanese and Chinese firms, the Asahi newspaper reported. Negotiations with the consortium will not advance until an extra source of capital is found, Asahi said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Japan Display on Saturday said in a statement that there was no truth to the report, without elaborating. The new investor, which would have to invest tens of billions of yen, is necessary because the backers have discovered that Japan Display is in far worse shape than was estimated when the infusion was first announced last month, the report said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
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