EQUITIES
Investors bank on US rally
The TAIEX moved sharply higher to close above 18,100 points yesterday, as upward momentum on the main board continued from the previous session after an overnight rally on US markets. Buying rotated to the bellwether electronics sector as investors took their cues from a robust showing by tech stocks in the US, while select old economy stocks continued to post gains on the back of growing raw material prices worldwide. The TAIEX closed up 185.20 points, or 1.03 percent, at 18,151.76, after moving between 18,039.23 and 18,168.60. Turnover totaled NT$294.063 billion (US$10.57 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$10.41 billion of shares on the main board. Institutional investors were adjusting their portfolios, because global index provider MSCI Inc is scheduled to release the results of its quarterly index review early this morning, analysts said.
COMPUTERS
Advantech revenue rises
Industrial computer manufacturer Advantech Co (研華) yesterday reported revenue of NT$5.38 billion for last month, a 19.36 percent increase from NT$4,511 million a year earlier. Last month’s revenue was the third-highest in the company’s history, Advantech said in a statement. In terms of regions, Europe, North America and emerging markets were the best performers last month, posting annual revenue growth of 37 percent, 29 percent and 41 percent respectively, the company said. Among its business units, its service-Internet of Things (IoT) unit and applied computing unit had the most growth momentum, with annual sales growth of 74 percent and 58 percent respectively, it said. However, its cloud-IoT unit performed relatively poorly with a double-digit decline in sales from a year earlier due to component shortages and last year’s relatively high comparison base, it said. The company’s orders to shipments ratio reached 1.45 last month, it added.
LABOR
Furloughed workers drop
The number of workers on formal furlough programs in Taiwan has over the past week dropped below 13,000, but mainly because certain business sectors are still in the process of reporting their data, the Ministry of Labor said on Tuesday. The number of workers who agreed to take unpaid leave fell to 12,659 as of Monday, down 344 from the previous report released on Jan. 24, data compiled by the ministry showed. Meanwhile, the number of companies with furlough programs in place fell by 113 from a week earlier to 2,019.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Hon Hai sets Thai EV target
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has set a goal of producing 150,000 electric vehicles (EVs) in Thailand by 2030 through a joint venture that was launched there on Monday. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, said in a statement that Horizon Plus Co Ltd, the joint venture set up with state-owned oil supplier PTT Public Co, opened on Monday and would have an initial annual capacity of 50,000 units. That capacity is expected to rise to 150,000 units by 2030 to meet anticipated rising demand in Thailand and other Southeast Asian markets, the company said. Hon Hai in September last year signed a deal with PTT to establish the joint venture. The two companies said at the time that they would invest up to US$2 billion in the new company through subsidiaries, with Hon Hai holding a 40 percent stake and PTT the remaining 60 percent.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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