EQUITIES
TAIEX bounces back
The TAIEX staged a technical rebound yesterday, closing more than 100 points higher amid interest in old-economy shares, dealers said. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) bounced back from its earlier losses, lending support to the broader market by the end of the session, they said. The TAIEX’s gains were technical in nature and stiff technical resistance could come ahead of 16,410 points, which was the intraday high on Thursday last week, Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said. “As the yield of the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bill is likely to increase, market volatility in Taiwan, the US and elsewhere is likely down the road,” Huang said. The TAIEX closed up 118.98 points, or 0.74 percent, at 16,189.22 on turnover of NT$332.200 billion (US$11.66 billion). Despite the TAIEX’s gains, foreign institutional investors yesterday sold a net NT$5.075 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
ELECTRONICS
Auto talks boost Hon Hai
Shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a key supplier to Apple Inc, yesterday rose as much as 5.26 percent after Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup JSC said that its auto unit was in early stage talks with the Taiwanese firm about cooperating on developing batteries and electric vehicle parts. Hon Hai, known outside Taiwan as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has proposed acquiring production lines owned by the Vingroup unit, VinFast, Reuters reported on Friday last week. Vingroup later said it had received proposals from Hon Hai and that the partnership would focus on developing batteries and auto parts. Hon Hai shares yesterday closed at NT$130.
COMPUTERS
Acer shares dip on hacking
Acer Inc (宏碁) shares yesterday closed 1.15 percent lower at NT$30.05, after the company was hit by a massive ransomware attack, in which hackers demanded US$50 million before releasing stolen data. It was reported last week that Acer had been hit by the REvil hacker group, which had asked for the ransom. Technology news Web site BleepingComputer said that it was the highest ransom REvil had ever sought. Acer said that it had observed some abnormalities and reported them to the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in several nations. The firm said that it would continue to improve its cybersecurity, while the Criminal Investigation Bureau said that it had launched an investigation into the cyberattack.
ELECTRONICS
Sony eyeing 10% growth
Sony Corp has forecast that sales of its smartphones in Taiwan would grow by 5 to 10 percent this year as the company concentrates on exploiting demand for devices with 5G capabilities. Sony Mobile Taiwan president Johnathan Lin (林志遠) last week said that he expects Taiwan’s smartphone market to grow this year and that he sees his company’s sales as growing by 5 to 10 percent to 2019 levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Lin said that Sony would not release any new 4G smartphones this year and instead concentrate its efforts on introducing high-end flagship and mid-range 5G smartphones. Sony’s smartphone sales in Taiwan were the second-highest of any nation last year, trailing only revenue generated in the brand’s home nation of Japan, he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six