EQUITIES
Asian markets rise
Asian stock markets were mostly higher yesterday as worries over turmoil in the banking industry eased and a top Chinese leader said that the world’s No. 2 economy was gaining momentum. In Taipei trading, the benchmark TAIEX closed up 0.51 percent at 15,849.43 on turnover of NT$184.128 billion (US$6.04 billion). Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.6 percent to 20,309.13, while the Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.7 percent to 3,261.25. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.4 percent to close at 27,782.93, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.0 percent to 7,122.30 and South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.4 percent to 2,453.16. “We are starting to see a little bit of stabilization, there is a perception that somehow the banking crisis is behind us,” CMC Markets PLC chief market analyst Mike Hewson said. “The next few days are going to be a key test of this stabilization with month end, and quarter end, coming up when you have a lot of funds doing a tidy up, then suddenly it’s where do we go from here?”
ELECTRONICS
Delta to acquire K&B stake
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to acquire a 19 percent stake in Zhejiang K&B Electrical Technology Co (浙江科恩特電機科技) through its Hong Kong unit. The share purchase is to cost 81.7 million yuan (US$11.88 million), Delta said in a regulatory filing. K&B Electrical Technology’s business mainly focuses on the production of motors, micro motors and motor accessories. The Chinese firm also sells self-made products and provides technical consulting services, Delta said. The deal is to strengthen Delta’s industrial automation product line and provide highly integrated solutions, it said. The transaction needs approval from the Investment Commission, it added.
CHIPMAKERS
ASE board approves dividend
ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip tester and packager, yesterday said its board of directors has approved a cash dividend of NT$8.8 per share this year based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$14.53. This year’s payout is higher than the NT$7 per share the firm distributed last year and the highest since ASE transformed into a holding company in 2018. The dividend represents a payout ratio of 60.56 percent. The dividend proposal is to be voted on by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on June 27, it said.
RETAILERS
Shin Kong head announced
Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp (新光人纖) chairman Eric Wu (吳東昇) on Wednesday won the leadership position of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store Co (新光三越百貨) chain, reportedly with the help of his brother and former Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進). Eric Wu’s victory would help Shin Kong Financial fend off attempts to shake up its boardroom as the department store chain has a 3.83 percent stake in Shin Kong Financial, Chinese-language media reported yesterday. Richard Wu (吳昕陽) retained his position as president of the chain, which is a joint venture between Shin Kong Group (新光集團) and Japan’s Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. The chain is seeking to increase revenue by 4 percent to NT$92 billion this year, Richard Wu said. With 14 outlets across Taiwan, it plans to open a new store in Taipei in June, he said.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
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