EQUITIES
TAIEX dips on profit-taking
The TAIEX closed slightly lower yesterday, after coming off a historical intraday high, as investors locked in their gains from the first two sessions of this year, dealers said. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which had been a driver of the main board’s gains in the previous two sessions, was affected by profit-taking, dealers said. TSMC fell 0.91 percent to close at NT$650. Buying rotated to select old economy and financial stocks, which lent support to the broader market, they said. The TAIEX closed down 26.39 points, or 0.14 percent, at 18,499.96. Turnover totaled NT$337.983 billion (US$12.24 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$9.34 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
AUTO PARTS
BizLink revenue up 6.59%
Wire harness maker BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯控股) yesterday posted revenue of NT$2.88 billion for last month, up 6.59 percent month-on-month and 44.13 percent year-on-year. BizLink, the sole supplier of wiring harnesses for battery management systems in Tesla Inc Model 3s, said in a statement that last month’s revenue rose above US$100 million for the first time in the company’s history. “Healthy year-end demand boosted sales, with shipments to data center customers rising, but shipments to electrical appliance customers slowing, while shipments to customers in our other segments stayed stable,” the company said. Total revenue for the whole of last year grew 27.03 percent year-on-year to NT$28.68 billion, the company said.
MANUFACTURING
Airtac profit up despite virus
Pneumatic components supplier Airtac International Group (亞德客) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$2.25 billion for last month, up 16.87 percent month-on-month and 13.74 percent year-on-year, as the company’s shipments gradually returned to normal, despite the unstable COVID-19 situation and power restrictions. “Although the [COVID-19] pandemic situation in some cities in China [has been] unstable recently, the company’s production and shipments have not been affected, with both orders and shipments remaining good in the first couple days of January,” Airtac said in a statement. The company said its overall revenue for the whole of last year grew 32.96 percent to a record of NT$25.4 billion. It is optimistic about its operations this year, so it aims to maintain a 110 percent production utilization rate to increase inventory and meet traditional peak-season demand from March, Airtac said.
ELECTRONICS
Lite-On posts record revenue
Electronic components supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported record revenue of NT$15.06 billion for last month, up 0.94 percent from a month earlier and 12.04 percent from a year earlier. The company said its information technology and consumer electronics business, which accounted for 56 percent of its total sales, posted annual growth of 15 percent in sales last month. That was thanks to healthy shipments of notebook PC power adapters and power supplies for gaming, as well as keyboards and mice, coupled with smooth delivery of laser models of multifunction peripherals, it said. The company’s optoelectronics, and cloud and artificial intelligence of things segments reported 8 and 5 percent increases in sales respectively. Due to solid demand from its core business, cumulative sales for whole of last year totaled NT$164.83 billion, up 4.91 percent from 2020.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
RSS