EQUITIES
Select tech recoup losses
The TAIEX yesterday closed higher after seesawing ahead of 17,000 points on a day when turnover hit an all-time high. Select tech heavyweights recouped earlier losses on bargain hunting, and steel and shipping sector stocks attracted rotational buying in a market still bolstered by high liquidity, dealers said. The TAIEX ended up 41.06 points, or 0.24 percent, at 16,865.97 on turnover of NT$483.834 billion (US$17.02 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$1.80 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. “Some investors remained anxious, waiting for TSMC’s [Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, 台積電] investor conference on Thursday to find out the company’s results for the first quarter and its guidance for the second quarter, as well as for 2021,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) manager Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Fab equipment sales soar
Global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment last year surged 19 percent to a record US$71.2 billion, up from US$59.8 billion in 2019, industry association SEMI reported yesterday. SEMI expects global sales of wafer processing equipment to hit a new record this year, after major chipmakers announced new capital expenditure plans for this year, SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said in a statement. SEMI data showed that China for the first time last year surpassed Taiwan to become the largest semiconductor equipment market, with sales surging 39 percent year-on-year to US$18.72 billion, while sales in Taiwan edged up 0.2 percent to US$17.15 billion, sales in South Korea grew 61 percent to US$16.08 billion and sales in North America fell 20 percent, after three years of growth.
CHIPMAKERS
MediaTek sales hit record
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s largest IC designer, on Tuesday posted record-high monthly and quarterly sales driven by big shipments of 5G smartphone and TV chips. The company posted consolidated sales of NT$40.15 billion for last month, up 23.33 percent from February and up 75.89 percent from last year — the first time its revenue has exceeded NT$40 billion in a single month. First-quarter sales also set a company record for a single quarter at NT$108.03 billion, up 12.06 percent from a quarter earlier and up 77.5 percent from a year earlier, MediaTek said. The figure beat the company’s earlier sales guidance for the quarter of NT$96.4 billion to NT$104.1 billion.
CHIPMAKERS
TSMC faces temporary power outage
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that a seven-hour power outage at South Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) mainly disrupted the production of 40-nanometer chips at one of its factories. TSMC said it was still evaluating the cost of the power outage at its Fab 14 P7 site, which according to local media reports was estimated at NT$1 billion (US$35.14 million). When the power went off from 11:06am to 6:23pm, the company managed to resume operations with the use of its diesel power generators, TSMC said. According to the state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電), the seven-hour power outage was caused by damage to an electric cable near a power substation at the science park during construction work.
STOCK EXCHANGES
TWSE backs gender equality
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said that it was pleased last month to join more than 100 exchanges worldwide in celebrating the seventh annual “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” initiative. “Standing together, the TWSE and exchanges around the world held events or ceremonies to encourage the private sector to jointly promote women’s rights in economic participation,” the exchange said in a news release yesterday. On March 15, TWSE chairman Hsu Jan-yau (許璋瑤) and president Chien Lih-chung (簡立忠) led all senior executives in ringing the bell, demonstrating the exchange’s commitment to promoting gender equality and presenting Taiwan’s achievements in ensuring women’s empowerment, the release said. The TWSE said it had earlier marked a global 2021 Corporate Governance Evaluation Educational Sessions initiative, through which it urged all listed firms to advance gender equality and sustainable development.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
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