EQUITIES
TAIEX jumps 170.09 points
The TAIEX yesterday rose sharply by about 170 points, as the bellwether electronics sector continued to gain momentum on the back of a rally by US tech stocks at the end of last week. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) drove the broader market, while downstream tech stocks, flat-panel makers and some large-cap old-economy stocks also attracted buying interest, dealers said. The TAIEX ended up 170.09 points, or 1.04 percent, at 16,475.97, on turnover of NT$323.26 billion (US$11.32 billion). Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$8.74 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
EQUITIES
Foreigners sell TSMC, CAL
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$39.68 billion of shares after selling a net NT$45.03 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three stocks sold by foreign investors were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and Pegatron Corp (和碩), while the top three bought were HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and Innolux Corp (群創), the exchange said in a statement. As of Friday last week, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$22.32 trillion, or 44.87 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
COMPUTERS
Clevo net profit falls 37.9%
Computer maker Clevo Co (藍天電腦) yesterday reported that net profit last year fell 37.9 percent annually to NT$667 million, while revenue dipped 8 percent to NT$20.2 billion. Earnings per share were NT$1.12, down from NT$1.75 in 2019. The company’s board of directors has proposed to distribute a cash dividend of 0.6 per share, representing a payout ratio of 53.57 percent. The company said that laptop shipments last year rose 8 percent year-on-year to 1.52 million units, while laptop sales increased 5 percent to NT$16.2 billion, despite shortages of key components. As distance learning remains strong and high-end models are likely to benefit from replacement demand, laptop shipments this year are expected to rise 15 percent to 1.75 million units, it said.
RESTAURANTS
TTFB net profit rises 2.5%
Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), which operates six restaurant chains in Taiwan and China, yesterday reported that net profit last year increased 2.5 percent year-on-year to NT$369 million. Earnings per share were NT$15.95, a record high, it said. Tai Tong said that it is upbeat about its outlook for the year and plans to accelerate store expansion plans in Taiwan. The company’s board of directors has proposed to distribute a cash dividend of NT$14.5 per share, which represents a payout ratio of 90.91 percent and a dividend yield of 6.6 percent based on yesterday’s closing share price of NT$241.5.
SHIPPING
Evergreen payout approved
Evergreen Marine Corp’s (長榮海運) board of directors last week proposed to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per common share, the highest over the past decade, based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$5.06, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. The proposed cash dividend represents a payout ratio of 49 percent and a dividend yield of 5.71 percent based on yesterday’s closing share price of NT$43.8.
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest high-end smartphone features more Chinese suppliers, including a new flash memory chip and an improved chip processor, a teardown analysis showed, pointing to the progress China is making toward technology self-sufficiency. The inside of Huawei’s Pura 70 Pro was examined by online tech repair company iFixit and consultancy TechSearch International, finding components made by Chinese suppliers. The firms also found that the Pura 70 phones run on an advanced processing chipset made by Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) called the Kirin 9010, which is likely a slightly improved version of the advanced chip