EQUITIES
TAIEX moves lower
The TAIEX moved lower yesterday, falling by more than 100 points as the bellwether electronics sector took a hit from losses incurred by tech stocks listed on US markets overnight. However, with the market awash in liquidity, buying rotated to old-economy stocks in the shipping and cement industries as investors tended to park their money in safe havens outside the tech sector, dealers said. The TAIEX closed down 121.76 points, or 0.70 percent, at 17,202.11. Turnover totaled NT$439.833 billion (US$15.62 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$20.26 billion of shares on the main board yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
BROKERAGES
Combined profit surges
Securities firms in Taiwan reported combined net profit of NT$11.47 billion for last month, up 52.78 percent from the previous month, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said in a statement yesterday. Accumulated net profit among securities firms in the first three months of this year totaled NT$26.85 billion, up NT$31.45 billion from the same period last year, the exchange said. As total TWSE trading value grew 56.29 percent month-on-month to NT$7.06 trillion last month, firms reported an increase in brokerage fee income than the previous month, it said. However, net profit from trading decreased 4.88 percent monthly, while net underwriting income increased by 67.12 percent, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Ene to cancel shares
IC designer Ene Technology Inc (迅杰科技) yesterday announced a capital reduction scheme in which it would cancel 51.55 percent of its shares in circulation to pare accumulated losses. The scheme would reduce its capitalization to NT$363 million from NT$386.5 billion, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company said it expects net value per share to recover to NT$12 following the capital reduction. The company’s board of directors approved a private placement plan to woo potential strategic investors and boost working capital. The company proposed issuing up to 8 million new shares in the private placement, the filing said.
TECHNOLOGY
Naver eyes global growth
Naver Corp wants to boost its international presence after its US debut last month. To help with that, the South Korean company is considering more US dollar bond sales and is eyeing a possible initial public offering in the US for a unit, Naver chief financial officer Park Sang-jin said in an interview. “To grow, it’s inevitable that we go global,” said Park, who has been with the firm since it was founded in 1999. Naver is looking for more opportunities in Japan, where its Line messaging service is popular, as well as Taiwan, Europe and Southeast Asia, he said.
ELECTRONICS
Purple iPhone sales unveiled
Preorders for purple iPhone 12s and iPhone 12 minis are scheduled to start tomorrow in Taiwan, with the country selected as one of the first markets for sales, Apple Inc said on its Web site. The US electronics giant said that preorders for the “stunning” purple devices would start at 8pm and the new phones would go on sale on Friday next week at a starting price of NT$23,900. The announcement came after Apple unveiled the new color of its latest iPhones overnight.
South Korea’s equity benchmark yesterday crossed a new milestone just a month after surpassing the once-unthinkable 5,000 mark as surging global memory demand powers the country’s biggest chipmakers. The KOSPI advanced as much as 2.6 percent to a record 6,123, with Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc each gaining more than 2 percent. With the benchmark now up 45 percent this year, South Korea’s stock market capitalization has also moved past France’s, following last month’s overtaking of Germany’s. Long overlooked by foreign funds, despite being undervalued, South Korean stocks have now emerged as clear winners in the global market. The so-called “artificial intelligence
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said. The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that is affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence (AI) tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers. IDC forecast about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia Corp’s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior official of US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday, in what could represent a violation of US export controls. The US believes DeepSeek will remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips, the official said, adding that the Blackwells are likely clustered at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. The person declined to say how the US government received
People stand in a Pokemon store in Tokyo on Thursday. One of the world highest-grossing franchises is celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday.
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