Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points.
TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise.
The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Photo: Bloomberg
The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance on Wall Street on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.8 percent, the NASDAQ Composite index increasing 1.77 percent and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbing 2.83 percent. TSMC’s American Depositary Receipts also posted a 3.49 percent rise.
TSMC and several electronics heavyweights attracted strong buying yesterday ahead of the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, analysts said.
“Many investors at home and abroad have highly anticipated Nvidia Corp will give positive leads at CES,” MasterLink Securities Corp (元富證券) analyst Tom Tang (湯忠謙) said, referring to a keynote speech Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is to give at the tech event.
“So, after the strong showing among tech stocks on the US markets on Friday, large-cap electronics stocks in Taiwan just followed suit, led by TSMC,” Tang said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), assembly partner of Nvidia and Apple Inc, rallied 1.93 percent after the company reported better-than-expected revenue for the latest quarter and the whole of last year.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets were mixed yesterday, as traders struggled to track a healthy run-up on Wall Street, with minds turning to US president-elect Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Sydney, Singapore, Manila and Wellington edged up, while Seoul piled on 1.9 percent even as South Korea remains gripped by political uncertainty following suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s brief martial law attempt last month.
Tokyo retreated more than 1 percent, with Nippon Steel Corp taking a hit after US President Joe Biden blocked its proposed US$14.9 billion purchase of US Steel Corp, saying that it would “create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains.”
There were also losses in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Bangkok and Jakarta.
Meanwhile, Chinese stocks extended losses yesterday to three-month lows despite authorities’ efforts to shore up the market, as concerns over economic recovery and geopolitical tensions weighed.
The blue-chip CSI 300 closed down 0.2 percent to its lowest level since Sept. 27 last year, extending a 5.2 percent drop last week, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.1 percent.
To stabilize volatility, the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges met with foreign institutions over the weekend, with both bourses pledging to continue opening up China’s capital markets and asking some large mutual funds to restrict selling.
Additional reporting by AFP and Reuters
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS