STOCK MARKETS
TAIEX closes slightly higher
The TAIEX closed slightly higher yesterday as market sentiment remained cautious over the Nov. 3 US presidential election. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was again the anchor stabilizing the broader market, preventing the main board from falling into negative territory at the end of the session, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 14.88 points, or 0.12 percent, at 12,877.25, on turnover of NT$167.982 billion (US$5.81 billion). TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, rose 0.44 percent after fluctuating between NT$451 and NT$456. The semiconductor subindex and the bellwether electronics sector closed up 0.39 percent and 0.19 percent respectively. Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$599 million of Taiwanese shares on the main board yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
ELECTRONICS
Alltop approves reduction
Alltop Technology Co (凡甲科技), which supplies connectors for electronic devices and cables for servers, yesterday said that its board of directors approved a capital reduction scheme in which the company would cut 25 percent of its capitalization to NT$546.87 million and shareholders would be paid NT$2.5 per share. As the company sees no urgent need for capital for the time being, it expects that the reduction would increase shareholder returns and help it adjust its capital structure, it said. Shareholders are to vote on the scheme at the firm’s annual general meeting on Dec. 10, after which it would need regulatory approval, Alltop said in a filing. The plan should be completed by the first quarter of next year. Alltop reported cumulative revenue of NT$1.6 billion in the first three quarters of this year, up 13.6 percent from a year earlier.
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
ALi denies Wi-Fi report
Set-top box IC designer ALi Corp (揚智科技) yesterday denied an Economic Daily News report that it is setting up a Wi-Fi 6 team of 20 people with an aim to mass-produce and sell such products from June. ALi said that the report, which helped push its share price up by the daily limit in Taipei trading yesterday, closing at NT$27.2, was speculation among investors and local media. “This is misleading news and sheer fiction. ALi hereby solemnly denies it,” the firm said in a regulatory filing. The company reported cumulative revenue of NT$1.496 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 0.94 percent from a year earlier. In the first half of the year, the company incurred a net loss of NT$98.23 million, compared with a net loss of NT$195.93 million a year earlier.
CHIPMAKERS
Phison opens US lab
Flash memorychip controller supplier Phison Electronics Corp (群聯) yesterday said that it has opened an enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) engineering lab, and set up a systems integration and engineering group (SIE) in Colorado, with an aim to provide real-time technical support and product-related services for enterprise SSD customers and partners in the region. Making its inroad into the enterprise SSD market, Phison said that the SIE is the company’s first in the US. Phison expects the Colorado team, and the research and development lab, to increase their engineering staff numbers in the next few months to meet the increasing demand. The company did not provide specific figures for the US investment.
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
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The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy hinges on microchips, but the semiconductor sector that produces them has a dirty secret: It is a major source of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Global chip sales surged more than 19 percent to about US$628 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecasts double-digit growth again this year. That is adding urgency to reducing the effects of “forever chemicals” — which are also used to make firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and other everyday items — as are regulators in the US and Europe who are beginning to
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