EQUITIES
Late buying boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX yesterday closed higher after recovering earlier losses due to late-session buying. Bargain hunters rushed to pick up large-cap stocks after Taiwan’s weighting was downgraded in three major MSCI Inc indices, which went into effect after the market closed yesterday, dealers said. There was so much last-ditch buying that it boosted turnover by about NT$62.4 billion (US$2.25 billion), the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. The TAIEX closed up 93.77 points, or 0.54 percent, at the day’s high of 17,490.29. Turnover totaled NT$335.3 billion, exceeding Monday’s NT$269.49 billion. Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$24.26 billion of shares on the main board, also more than the net buy of NT$21.23 billion a day earlier, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
ALUMINUM
China firms face punitive tax
The government is to impose an anti-dumping tax on Chinese-made aluminum foil products, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The ministry said its investigation found that artificially cheap Chinese-made aluminum foil products had caused material damage to Taiwanese production. The ministry would levy an anti-dumping duty of between 19.42 percent and 31.36 percent on Chinese products, it said. The tax would be in effect for five years and is retroactive to Feb. 22, the ministry said. Chinese companies subject to the anti-dumping tax include Shanghai Sunho Aluminum Foil Co (上海神火鋁箔), Kunshan Aluminum Co (昆山鋁業), Jiangsu Dare Aluminum Industry Co (江蘇大亞鋁業), Danyang Jingyi Aluminum Industry Co (丹陽市精益鋁業) and Xiamen Xiashun Aluminum Foil Co (廈門廈順鋁箔), the ministry said.
INVESTMENT
Fubon plans to issue shares
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) on Monday said its board approved a plan to issue 548 million new shares in a rights issue at NT$58.9 each, representing about a 30 percent discount from the stock’s closing price of NT$84.8 on Monday. The company also decided to issue about 333 million preferred shares at NT$60, a 29 percent discount from Monday’s closing level. Fubon Financial said that the funds would total about NT$52.28 billion and the moves should be completed by the end of next month, in time for its acquisition of Jih Sun Financial Holding Co (日盛金控). Fubon Financial in March acquired more than 2.03 billion Jih Sun Financial shares, or a 53.84 percent stake in the firm. The company yesterday secured all of Jih Sun Finanical’s board seats at the latter’s annual general meeting, paving the way for it to complete the first merger of two financial holding companies in Taiwan.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Hon Hai talks Thailand goals
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is looking to take an electric vehicle (EV) joint venture with Thailand’s state-owned oil supplier PTT Public Co Ltd public. At the Future Energy Asia online forum on Friday, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said his ambition was for the joint venture to become a benchmark for EV development in Thailand, and for it to launch an initial public offering in 2025. Liu said the partnership is expected to lead to a comprehensive EV ecosystem in Thailand. The two companies in May signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the EV market in Thailand by setting up an open platform to produce EVs and key components for the EV sector there. At the forum, Liu said the PTT partnership would use a build, operate and localize business model.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”