EQUITIES
Foreign selling spikes
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$83.02 billion (US$2.86 billion) of local shares after selling a net NT$7.2 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$552.81 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Innolux Corp (群創) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), while the top three shares they bought were CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), the exchange said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$21.97 trillion, or 41 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
COMPUTERS
Ennoconn hits record sales
Industrial computer maker Ennoconn Corp (樺漢科技) yesterday reported that sales for last month were a record for March, bringing cumulative sales in the first quarter to a record high, despite headwinds such as the Russia-Ukraine war and raw material shortages. Consolidated revenue increased 41.4 percent month-on-month and 15.7 percent year-on-year to NT$9.56 billion, the company said in a statement. First-quarter revenue was up 20 percent annually to NT$24.22 billion. Ennoconn said the growth was across the board for its three major business units: with the design and manufacturing segment contributing 18.2 percent to the company’s total revenue, systems integration 40 percent and brand business 41 percent, it said.
E-COMMERCE
Momo sales rise 23.3%
E-commerce operator Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$7.53 billion for last month, up 23.3 percent from a year earlier and hitting a record for March. The online shopping business, which has benefited from a changing consumer pattern amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saw sales increase 25.5 percent on the back of robust demand for health and leisure products, cosmetics and household goods, the company said in a statement. In addition, sales of scooters and motorbikes surged during the back-to-school season, it said. Online shopping contributed 94.8 percent to last month’s total revenue, the company said. First-quarter revenue totaled NT$22.94 billion, up 24.9 percent from a year earlier and the second-highest quarterly revenue on record, it said.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai ups EV investment
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has poured more funds into an electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary, as it continues to explore business opportunities in this market. In a regulatory filing on Friday, Hon Hai said it has invested an additional US$39 million in Foxconn EV Technology Inc, taking about a 17 percent stake in the subsidiary. The new investments would allow Hon Hai to control a 100 percent stake in Foxconn EV Technology, which has served as a major investor, signing an agreement with Ohio-based pickup maker Lordstown Motors Corp to develop the Endurance electric pickup model. Separately, Hon Hai said its Longhua production site in Shenzhen in China’s Guangdong Province has obtained UL 2799 “Gold Level Certification” for its “Zero Waste to Landfill” efforts, making the complex “the world’s first comprehensive eco-park.”
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
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