EQUITIES
Investors lock in gains
The TAIEX yesterday closed lower in a volatile session, as investors shifted to the sell side to lock in earlier gains amid concerns over the attitude of foreign institutional investors who have increased short-term futures contracts in recent sessions, dealers said. Market sentiment has also been affected by an increase in domestic COVID-19 cases related to a hospital in Taoyuan, with many investors fearing that an escalation of the disease would hamper economic activity, they said. However, contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remained resilient, preventing the broader market from falling further, they added. The TAIEX ended down 71.19 points, or 0.45 percent, at 15,806.18, on turnover of NT$414.877 billion (US$14.601 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$21.55 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. TSMC shares finished up 3.19 percent to close at a historic high of NT$647.00.
INVESTMENT
TWSE cohosts conference
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and MasterLink Securities Co (元富證券) yesterday held an investment conference in Taipei that featured in-person and online meetings in the same event, and held 25 one-on-one meetings between local listed firms and institutional investors in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia, the exchange said in a statement. The forum, titled “Great Reset — New Industry Landscape after COVID-19,” received positive participant feedback, it said. The keynote address focused on corporate governance developments among local listed companies, it said. “The new format integrating physical and online meetings successfully increased interaction between listed companies and investors,” the exchange said. “The TWSE will continue to organize events for investors that introduce strongly performing listed companies to fuel local economic growth.”
BANKING
First Web-only bank opens
Rakuten International Commercial Bank Co (樂天國際商銀) on Tuesday opened for business, becoming Taiwan’s first Web-only bank. Backed by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc, the bank is one of three that have received digital banking licenses from the Financial Supervisory Commission. The bank features the Happy Program, a customer loyalty program that earns rewards from transactions, and the Rakuten Ecosystem, a virtual marketplace of products and services that make life easier for its members. Also introduced are New Taiwan dollar-denominated time deposits with maturities as short as seven days.
SEMICONDUCTORS
MediaTek ranked No. 8
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) last year took the eighth spot in the global semiconductor brand rankings, up five places from 2019, after sales increased 38.3 percent annually to US$11.01 billion, Gartner Inc said in a report on Thursday last week. MediaTek and US-based Qualcomm Inc last year benefited from record sales of 5G applications, the report said. Qualcomm last year posted US$17.91 billion in revenue, up 31.5 percent, to become the fifth-largest semiconductor brand, while Intel Corp remained No. 1 after it posted US$70.24 billion in sales, up 3.7 percent from a year earlier, it said. Samsung Electronics Co remained No. 2, after generating US$56.20 billion in sales, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier, ahead of DRAM makers SK Hynix Inc (US$25.27 billion, up 13.3 percent) and Micron Technology Inc (US$22.10 billion, up 9.1 percent), Gartner said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San