EQUITIES
TAIEX up 0.37 percent
The TAIEX yesterday closed higher, but came off an earlier high as investors locked in profits ahead of stiff technical resistance at about 16,000 points. Large-cap semiconductor stocks saw more obvious profit-taking during the session, while buying continued to rotate to the old economy and financial sectors to give the broader market a boost, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 58.58 points, or 0.37 percent, at 15,911.67, on turnover of NT$260.011 billion (US$9.18 billion). Despite the gains in the TAIEX, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$3.82 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC posts February record
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported a new sales record for February, with analysts attributing the growth to strong demand for the company’s high-end processors. TSMC said in a statement that it posted NT$106.53 billion in consolidated sales last month, the most ever in February and up 14.1 percent from a year earlier. Last month’s sales fell 15.9 percent month-on-month due to the reduced number of working days caused by the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday. Analysts said that with more working days this month, TSMC is expected to see month-on-month sales rebound. In the first two months of this year, TSMC generated sales of NT$233.28 billion, up 18.4 percent from a year earlier.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Phoenix sues over secrets
Silicon wafer recycler Phoenix Silicon International Corp (昇陽半導體) has filed a suit at the Hsinchu District Court against Integrated Service Technology Inc (宜特) and its employees, seeking damages of NT$5.64 billion for the alleged theft and use of its trade secrets. Phoenix said in a statement on Tuesday that Integrated Service Technology employees surnamed Lee (李) and Liu (劉) accessed 13 of its trade secrets, which Integrated Service Technology has appropriated. Integrated Service Technology denied the allegation and said that it would not rule out filing a lawsuit against Phoenix for smearing its name.
BANKING
King’s Town fined NT$1.8m
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Tuesday fined King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) NT$1.8 million and Shinkong Insurance Co (新光產險) NT$600,000 for breaching the Insurance Act (保險法). The commission found that King’s Town Bank changed its clients’ fire insurance policies without their approval, causing five clients to be overcharged by NT$3,153 from 2018 to last year, Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Yu-hui (張玉輝) said. Shinkong Insurance, which offered the fire insurance products for King’s Town Bank, ignored that some applicants did not sign their documents, the commission said.
APPAREL
Quang Viet’s revenue drops
Down jacket and outdoor garment maker Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越企業) on Tuesday said that its revenue fell 16.43 percent to NT$446 million last month, from NT$533.77 million a year earlier. Quang Viet said the drop was milder than it had expected. The company said that orders have started coming in, and it expects a significant improvement in revenue next quarter. The firm reported that its annual declines in revenue have decreased over the past two months, from a 38 percent year-on-year slump in December last year.
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
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