TAIEX closes up
Shares closed 0.41 percent higher yesterday as fund managers spruced up portfolios ahead of year's end, with expectations of increased foreign capital inflows providing support, dealers said.
However, volume was light because of the holiday.
The TAIEX rose 31.53 points at 7,652.47, on turnover of NT$86.97 billion (US$2.68 billion). Risers led decliners 595 to 535, while 199 stocks were unchanged.
For the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed up 113.65 points or 1.51 percent after a 1.28 percent fall a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$104.78 billion, compared with NT$108.43 billion a week ago.
The Taiwan stock market will remain open on Monday but trade is expected to be sluggish as most overseas bourses will be closed on Christmas Day.
Bonds planned for first quarter
The government plans to issue bonds of a maximum of NT$115 billion (US$3.5 billion) in the first quarter of next year, according to a press statement released by the Ministry of Finance yesterday.
Next month, five-year bonds worth NT$40 billion will be issued. Twenty-year bonds worth between NT$30 billion and NT$35 billion will be sold in February. In March, the government will issue 10-year bonds of NT$40 billion.
Tsai Ching-nain (蔡慶年), director general of the finance ministry's National Treasury Agency, said earlier that the government plans to issue bonds worth a total of NT$360 billion next year, with some of this dedicated to debt management.
China investment increases
The government approved US$6.4 billion in China-bound investment in the first 11 months of this year, marking a 13.8 percent growth year-on-year, according to tallies released yesterday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
A total of 983 China-bound investment projects were approved during the 11-month period, the MOEA statistics showed.
Last month alone, the MOEA's Investment Commission approved 104 China-bound investment projects worth US$510.97 million.
With China-bound investment getting bigger in scale, Vice Economic Affairs Minister Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) said the amount would continue to increase.
If two companies -- ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德) and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光) -- whose China-bound investment projects have received initial government approval, can finalize paperwork in time, Shih said the total amount of this year's China-bound investments would break the US$6.94 billion single-year record set in 2004.
ProMOS has applied to relocate a wafer plant to China while ASE intends to take over China's Global Advanced Packaging Technology.
Land Bank granted HK license
The Hong Kong Monetary Author-ity yesterday announced that it had granted a banking license to the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) on Thursday. The third-largest bank in Taiwan, the Land Bank is owned fully by the Taiwanese government. It ranked 174th among world banks in terms of assets, according to a July survey by the Banker Magazine. It has maintained a representative office in Hong Kong since 1999. The license allows the bank to offer consumer banking services, including operating current and savings accounts and accepting deposits of any size and maturity from customers.
NT dollar down
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.012 to close at NT$32.565 on the Taipei Forex Inc.
Turnover was US$663 million.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said. The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei. However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity. TSMC “immediately activated
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Shares of Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) surged more than 53 percent on its debut on the Taiwan stock exchange yesterday. Starlux shares closed up 53.75 percent at NT$30.75 from its initial public offering price of NT$20 after retreating in late trading from a 60 percent rise. China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) rose 0.90 percent to close at NT$22.35, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) gained 0.40 percent to close at NT$37.70. In Taiwan, a newly listed stock is allowed to go beyond the 10 percent maximum increase or decline in its first five trading sessions. At the listing ceremony, Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said
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