EQUITIES
TAIEX follows US stocks
The TAIEX moved lower yesterday following a plunge in US markets late last week caused by a surge in COVID-19 cases there. Large-cap stocks, in particular in the bellwether electronics sector, led the downturn, pushing the TAIEX below 11,600 points, while buying rotated to biotech stocks, dealers said. At the end of the session, the benchmark index was down 118.05 points, or 1.01 percent, at 11,542.62, on turnover of NT$206.42 billion (US$6.97 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$13.85 billion of shares yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
EQUITIES
Foreign investors net buyers
Foreign investors bought a net NT$15.51 billion in local shares last week, after they bought NT$153.15 billion and sold NT$137.64 billion, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said in a statement yesterday. The top three stocks overbought by foreign investors were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), while the top three stocks oversold by foreign investors were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Formosa Taffeta Co (福懋興業) and King’s Town Bank (京城銀行), the TWSE said. As of Wednesday last week, foreign investors had so far this year sold a net NT$6,572.5 billion in shares and accounted for 41.1 percent of total market capitalization, the TWSE said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Alchip profit soars 275%
Chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that net profit last month skyrocketed 275 percent annually to NT$67 million. That represented earnings per share of NT$1.11, up 271 percent from a year earlier. Revenue grew 83.5 percent to NT$556 million last month, up from NT$303 million a year earlier, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Alchip released the monthly earnings and revenue data at the request of the stock exchange regulator due to an unusual spike in its stock price. Alchip shares yesterday closed down 3.8 percent at NT$506. They have surged about 28 percent since June 19.
TELECOMS
Chief payout plan approved
Shareholders of Chief Telecom Co (是方電訊), a subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), yesterday approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$8 per common share, implying a payout ratio of 102.17 percent, based on earnings per share of NT$7.83 last year. The company reported a record-high profit of NT$546 million for last year, up 5.6 percent year-on-year, and record-high revenue of NT$2.4 billion, up 5.6 percent from 2018. Chief Telecom president Liu Yao-yuan (劉耀元) told shareholders that revenue this year is likely to increase by 6 to 8 percent, while earnings could increase by a double-digit percentage point.
TELECOMS
Nokia wins TWM contract
Telecom equipment maker Nokia Oyj yesterday said it has won a supply contract worth 400 million euros (US$451 million) from Taiwan Mobile Co (TWM, 台灣大哥大). The initial phase of the three-year deal, which includes 5G radio access networks, 5G core base stations and 5G IP multimedia subsystems, is to begin next month with the deployment of 5G non-standalone, with the aim of migrating to 5G standalone within three years, Nokia said in a statement. Nokia has supplied 2G, 3G and 4G equipment to Taiwan Mobile, which is set to launch its 5G service today.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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