EQUITIES
Tech stocks push up TAIEX
Taiwanese shares gained yesterday as the bellwether electronics sector continued its rise in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on US markets. However, some old economy stocks, in particular in the steel sector, remained in the doldrums, dampening the upturn on the broader market, dealers said. In addition, turnover kept falling amid rising concerns over escalating infections with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in many countries and investors fearing interruptions to the recovery of the global economy, they said. Moreover, many local companies are soon to report their sales for last month, prompting investors to wait for real numbers, they added. The TAIEX closed up 70.13 points, or 0.4 percent, at 17,623.89. Turnover totaled NT$374.025 billion (US$13.44 billion), compared with Tuesday’s NT$390.3 billion, with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$10.62 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
DISPLAYS
Innolux shares surge
Shares of LCD panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) surged yesterday after the company reported improved profitability in the second quarter. Innolux closed up 10 percent, the largest gain on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The company on Tuesday reported net profit of NT$21.4 billion in the second quarter, its highest quarterly profit and a sequential increase of 85.1 percent. That translated to earnings per share of NT$2.05. Innolux’s consolidated sales rose 11.21 percent from the first quarter to NT$93.2 billion, while operating income rose 59.8 percent to NT$23.8 billion. Innolux said that the sales and profit numbers largely reflected increasing global demand due to many economies reopening after lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Nuvoton predicts imbalance
Semiconductor firms would continue to struggle to meet customer demand, especially from the automotive sector, in the second half of this year, Nuvoton Technology Corp (新唐科技) said yesterday. The statement came after the Hsinchu-based supplier of microcontrollers reported record revenue of NT$10.61 billion in the second quarter, up 5.38 percent from the first quarter on the back of rising product prices. Net income for the second quarter also surged 247 percent sequentially to a record of NT$939 million, thanks to improved gross margin and investment gains. Earnings per share were NT$2.37 in the second quarter and NT$3.07 in the first half of this year.
ENERGY
EU firm opens local factory
A new wind turbine assembly facility operated by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA has started production in Taichung, making it the firm’s first plant outside Europe. Siemens Gamesa in a statement on Tuesday said that the new facility would primarily provide equipment for the 900-megawatt Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms, which are under development by the Danish firm Orsted A/S. Siemens Gamesa’s 30,000m2 assembly plant “reinforces our local footprint in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region,” the German-Spanish joint venture said. The plant would assemble the SG 8.0-167 DD turbines for the Changhua sites, it said. The Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms are 35km to 50km off the coast of Changhua County.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
DOMESTIC COMPONENT: Huang identified several Taiwanese partners to be a key part of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin supply chain, including Asustek, Hon Hai and Wistron Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), addressing crowds at the company’s biggest annual event, unveiled a variety of new products while predicting that its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) processors would help generate US$1 trillion in sales through next year. During a two-and-a-half-hour keynote address, Huang announced plans to push deeper into central processing units (CPUs) — Intel Corp’s home turf — and introduced semiconductors made with technology acquired from start-up Groq Inc. The company even said it was developing chips for data centers in outer space. At the heart of Huang’s speech was the message that demand for computing power
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