EQUITIES
TAIEX ends flat
Local shares yesterday closed flat after giving up earlier gains as the bellwether electronics sector came under pressure, dragging down the broader market, dealers said. While select old-economy stocks, in particular in the transportation and steel sectors, as well as the financial sector, remained strong throughout the session, market sentiment was cautious over the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, they said. The TAIEX ended down 1.7 points at 17,263.04 after moving between 17,217.58 and 17,363.04. Turnover was NT$286.16 billion (US$10.03 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$16.15 billion of shares.
EQUITIES
Foreign net sales surge
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$180.98 billion of local shares after selling NT$63.44 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$439.44 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), while the top three shares they bought were Innolux Corp (群創), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Wisdom Marine Lines Co (慧洋海運), the exchange said. The market cap of shares held by foreign investors was NT$22.35 trillion, or 41.75 percent of total market cap, it said.
ENERGY
Hsing Mien to invest NT$800m
Hsing Mien Industry Co (信銘工業) plans to invest NT$800 million to expand its manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday, as it approved the industrial gas provider’s application to join the government’s “Invest in Taiwan” initiative. The company plans to expand capacity at a plant at the Ping Nan Industrial Park (屏南工業區) in Pingtung County and increase production lines at a plant in Kaohsiung’s Dafa Industrial Park (大發工業區), the ministry said. Hsing Mien provides a wide range of industrial bulk gas and liquid gas used in different industrial applications, with customers including semiconductor companies and other high-tech firms.
TAXES
Receipt lottery raises wins
The National Taxation Administration on Friday said it would increase the number of NT$500 prize-winning receipts for its Cloud Uniform Invoice lottery to encourage the use of cloud invoices. Starting with the January-February draw, the number of NT$500 prize winners would be increased from 1 million to 1.65 million. The number of prize-winning receipts for the NT$1 million, NT$2,000 and NT$800 prizes is to remain unchanged at 30, 16,000 and 100,000 respectively, the agency said.
ELECTRONICS
Foxconn Industrial profit up
Foxconn Industrial Internet Co (富士康工業互聯網), Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) Shanghai-listed subsidiary that specializes in industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) solutions, yesterday reported that net profit last year grew 14.77 percent from a year earlier to 20.01 billion yuan (US$3.15 billion), it said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. That translated into earnings per share of 1.01 yuan, up from 0.88 yuan. Revenue rose 1.8 percent year-on-year to a record high 439.56 billion yuan. Foxconn Industrial attributed the growth to robust demand for cloud computing, IIoT, articificial intelligence and 5G-related applications.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS