TAIEX climbs 1.63 percent
Share prices closed up 1.63 percent yesterday as investors hailed improving US jobs data, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 124.73 points to 7,775.64 on turnover of NT$134.91 billion (US$4.19 billion).
The market opened 0.70 percent higher, vaulting the index past resistance at 7,700 points, and the momentum of large-cap stocks continued until the end of the session on optimism towards the global economic climate, dealers said.
Investors also shrugged off a setback suffered by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Saturday’s local elections, they said.
“The election outcome had been expected by the market. The end of the vote cleared uncertainty,” Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券) analyst Mars Hsu said.
Institutional investors picked up large-cap high-tech stocks on hopes of growing global demand, dealers said.
“The buying into the bellwether electronic sector showed investors have shifted their attention back to economic fundamentals after the elections,” Hsu said.
Hon Hai targets Quanta laptops
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest contract maker of electronics, plans to buy Quanta Computer Inc’s (廣達電腦) laptop unit, the United Evening News reported on Sunday without saying where it got the information from.
The companies denied the report, the Chinese-language newspaper said. Quanta’s spokeswoman Carol Hsu (許昭瑾) denied the rumor and Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding (丁祈安) didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Meanwhile, SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) said it has no intentions or plans to acquire Bank International Ningbo (寧波銀行) in China, the Taipei-based lender said in an exchange filing yesterday.
The Chinese-language Commercial Times reported SinoPac Financial aims to acquire a 51 percent stake in the Chinese bank for NT$6 billion, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan.
Formosa invests in Nanya
Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s biggest diversified industrial company, invested a total of NT$5.42 billion in group member Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) through three affiliates, their exchange statements said yesterday.
Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) invested NT$781 million, Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) bought NT$764 million shares, while Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) invested NT$3.87 billion. They paid NT$20 apiece for Nanya Technology’s shares.
Nanya Technology, Taiwan’s biggest maker of computer-memory chips, rose by its daily limit to close at NT$23.90 on the TAIEX yesterday, before the announcement.
Wealthy investors get richer
About 70 percent of affluent Chinese investors say they became wealthier during the last six months, helped by the global stock market rally, a survey conducted by Nielsen showed.
The number of Chinese respondents in the survey who reported an increase in their net worth climbed from 46 percent in June, said Bonnie Tse, the Hong Kong-based head of wealth management for Asia Pacific at HSBC Holdings PLC, which commissioned the survey.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has rallied 71 percent from a five-year low on March 9 after governments worldwide cut interest rates and pledged more than US$2 trillion in stimulus since September last year.
In India, the percentage of affluent respondents who said their wealth rose climbed to 68 percent from 28 percent six months ago.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday said it has signed an agreement with Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire the flat-panel display maker’s plant in Tainan for NT$17.14 billion (US$530.6 million) amid supply constraints of its advanced packaging capacity constraints. TSMC plans to use the plant, including buildings and manufacturing facilities, for future operations, the world’s biggest foundry service provider said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The chipmaker did not elaborate on whether it would convert the plant into a new panel-level packaging factory, or expand its advanced packaging chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity. The chipmaker "is working whatever it
‘AL SILICON ISLAND’: Tainan is the birthplace of AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su, while TSMC is building a new fab to produce 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) has chosen to locate its new research-and-development (R&D) centers in Tainan and Kaohsiung, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The new facilities are part of a NT$8.64 billion (US$270.5 million) project to advance its development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and silicon photonics. AMD’s latest investment would help to develop Taiwan into an “AI silicon island,” the ministry said in a statement after Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) met AMD representatives led by David Wang (王啟尚), senior vice president of AMD’s graphics processing unit technologies and engineering, in Taipei yesterday. AMD did
As monsoon rains were about to break over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the threat of floods. “I was happy to hear I was getting married... I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila said after her wedding to a man twice her age in hope of a more prosperous life. “But I have nothing more, and with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.” Pakistan’s high rate of marriages for underage girls had been inching
LATE MOVE: If a deal goes ahead, upending Shin Kong Financial’s plans, CTBC Financial would be the financial conglomerate in Taiwan with the biggest assets CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金) yesterday said it is seeking regulatory approval to buy Shin Kong Financial Co (新光金) on the open market, casting a last-minute shadow over Taishin Financial Holding Co’s (台新金) bid. CTBC Financial, Taiwan’s third-largest financial conglomerate by assets, made known its intention in a stock exchange filing, just two days before Taishin Financial and Shin Kong Financial were to announce their merger through a share swap scheme. “We will supply more details over the buyout plan after the Financial Supervisory Commission [FSC] gives the go-ahead,” CTBC Financial said in the filing. The acquisition attempt, if realized, would enable CTBC