EQUITIES
Foreigners net buyers
Foreign investors last week bought a net NT$32.51 billion (US$1.17 billion) of local shares after they sold a net NT$41.57 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. The top three shares bought by foreign investors last week were United Microelectronics Co (聯電), HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) and CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), while the top three sold were Innolux Corp (群創), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Acer Inc (宏碁), the exchange said. As of Friday last week, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$23.31 trillion, or 43.52 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
AUTOMOBILES
Pan German profit soars
Pan German Universal Motors Ltd (汎德永業汽車), which distributes BMW, Porsche and Mini vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday reported the highest revenue and profit for the first half of the year in six years on the back of stable sales, as well as strong demand for its vehicle repair and maintenance services. The company posted consolidated revenue of NT$22.32 billion for the first half, up 22 percent year-on-year, while operating profit grew 54.8 percent to NT$780 million and net profit expanded 42.5 percent to NT$618 million, or earnings per share of NT$7.65, it said in a statement. The company said it is positive about the second half of the year after the government downgraded the COVID-19 alert level to 2 on Tuesday last week.
RETAILERS
Scan-D profit up 63.37%
Scan-D Corp (詩肯), a retailer of furniture, bedding and kitchen appliances, yesterday posted a net profit of NT$34.85 million for the second quarter of this year, up 63.37 percent year-on-year, with revenue rising 23.71 percent to NT$488 million. Earnings per share were NT$0.74, higher than the previous year’s NT$0.47. The company, which designs and sells teak furniture under the Scanteak brand, said customer traffic and orders have continued to improve since late June, while the contribution from Nova Furnishing Holdings Pte Ltd (諾雅家具), its Singapore-based retailing unit, also lent support.
RETAILERS
FamilyMart income tumbles
Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) on Sunday posted net income of NT$353.38 million for the second quarter of the year, down 41.68 percent from the previous year, or earnings per share of NT$1.58, down from NT$2.71. Consolidated revenue fell 2.89 percent year-on-year to NT$20.5 billion. The decrease came as an outbreak of domestic COVID-19 infections in May caused consumer traffic to drop significantly and some stores had to close, the company said.
SOFTWARE
Appier earnings improve
Artificial intelligence developer Appier Group Inc (沛星互動科技) on Thursday last week reported that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization improved to minus-1 percent in the second quarter of this year, up from minus-24 percent a year earlier. The Tokyo-listed company said its revenue grew 50 percent year-on-year to ￥2.8 billion (US$25.4 million), while gross profit grew 77 percent to ￥1.4 billion. The company, which has not made an operating profit since 2013, attributed the increase in sales and gross profit to its efforts to help customers capitalize on opportunities in the new digital economy. Appier also revised its revenue forecast for the whole year to ￥11.7 billion from ￥10.9 billion.
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
COLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinement Taiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Taiwan and the US last month concluded the sixth Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, during which both sides signed a joint statement endorsing the principles of the Pax Silica Declaration, pledging to deepen cooperation in areas including critical minerals. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and
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