Electronics sector lifts TAIEX
Taiwanese shares closed up 2.82 percent yesterday as the bellwether electronics sector led a technical rebound, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 126.08 points to 4,592.50, off a low of 4,504.71 and a high of 4,599.61, on turnover of NT$74.56 billion (US$2.19 billion).
Gainers led losers by 1,449 to 237, with 118 stocks unchanged.
The market opened up 0.86 percent on a strong showing by the high-tech sector and the momentum extended until the end of the session, with buying spreading to almost all other sectors, dealers said.
For the week, the weighted index rose 119.25 points or 2.67 percent after a 5.26 percent increase from a week earlier. Average daily turnover stood at US$73.6 billion, compared with US$59.76 billion the previous week.
Fuel prices to rise
Domestic gasoline and diesel prices will increase by NT$0.4 and NT$0.5 per liter respectively to reflect world crude prices, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced yesterday.
After the adjustment, which takes effect today, CPC’s price for a liter of 98-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$25, 95-octane unleaded gasoline will cost NT$23.5 and 92-octane unleaded gasoline will cost NT$22.8. Meanwhile, diesel will cost NT$20 per liter.
The state-owned oil refinery adjusts its energy prices every Friday afternoon, with the new prices effective the following day. To date, the unprofitable CPC is still absorbing the rise in the international market at the request of government.
CPC assigns its oil prices by using energy information provider Platt’s reports on average petroleum prices from Dubai and Brent with a 70 percent and 30 percent allocation, the company said.
Rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced it would match CPC’s price hikes, effective today.
‘Difficult’ year for Hong Kong
Hong Kong banks face a difficult year as lending slows and demand for investment products weaken as the economy moves deeper into its first recession since 2003, the city’s central bank said.
“[The year’s] operating environment will inevitably be difficult,” Y.K. Choi (蔡耀君), deputy chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, told reporters at a briefing yesterday. “Some banks may see red.”
Japan’s spending falls
Japanese household spending fell 1.9 percent last year from a year before to ¥296,932 (US$3,290) per month, the government said yesterday.
Spending for food dropped 1.9 percent from the previous year while utility expenditure declined 1.3 percent last year, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.
The average monthly income of salaried households dipped 0.6 percent last year to ¥534,235 from a year before.
The yearly average of monthly spending by salaried households also dropped 1.1 percent to ¥324,929.
NT dollar continues decline
The New Taiwan dollar continued losing ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.025 to close at NT$34.05.
The NT dollar dropped this week on speculation exports will extend last month’s slump, as US President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan may fail to revive demand.
“Our outlook for the Taiwan dollar is still weak,” said Thio Chin Loo, senior currency strategist at BNP Paribas in Singapore.
Regarding the US stimulus plan, she said: “The situation is still gloomy, which supports the dollar against Taiwan.”
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
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
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