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.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure