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.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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