EQUITIES
US rally spurs investors
Shares in Taiwan yesterday staged a rebound as investors were encouraged by an overnight rally in semiconductor stocks on US markets and focused on the bellwether electronics sector, dealers said. Buying also extended to old economy stocks, especially in the shipping and commodities sectors, as China began easing COVID-19 lockdowns in major cities, leading to hopes of improved demand, they said. The TAIEX closed up 94.53 points, or 0.56 percent, to 16,993.40. Turnover totaled NT$226.694 billion (US$7.76 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$2.13 billion of shares after a net sell of NT$19.41 billion on Monday. The electronics sector rose 0.55 percent and the semiconductor sub-index closed 0.61 percent higher, while paper stocks rose 1.12 percent and the transportation sector rose 2.65 percent.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC plans staff subsidy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to provide subsidies to employees who purchase its shares, the company said yesterday. To attract and retain staff, TSMC is set to launch the share purchase subsidy scheme for its 50,000 employees later this year, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday. This is the first time that TSMC has decided to subsidize employees buying its shares, the report said. Under the scheme expected to take effect in July, TSMC employees can have an amount deducted from their monthly salary to buy the company’s shares, while the company would offer subsidies of up to 15 percent to employees for those purchases, the report said. TSMC said that discussions about the subsidy program were under way and that details such as the subsidy rate would be determined during the company’s board meeting next month.
ELECTRONICS
Wiwynn plans NT$25 divined
Cloud computing equipment supplier Wiwynn Corp’s (緯穎科技) board of directors has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$25 per share, representing a payout ratio of 50.5 percent based on its earnings per share of NT$49.46 for last year, the company said on Monday. Wiwynn, a subsidiary of contract electronics maker Wistron Corp (緯創), reported record net profit of NT$8.65 billion for last year, up 0.5 percent from 2020, as consolidated revenue increased 3 percent to NT$192.63 billion, the highest in the company’s history. Wiwynn supplies cloud-based servers and solutions to global data center operators such as Microsoft Corp, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Due to steady growth in shipments to clients, revenue in the first quarter increased 29.07 percent year-on-year to NT$50.71 billion, the highest on record for the January-to-March period, the company said.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai ‘well’ in China
The world’s biggest iPhone assembly campus, on the outskirts of the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, is operating normally despite lockdowns and mass COVID-19 testing that began in the area last week, the Henan Daily reported. Operated by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), the sprawling assembly site’s importance to Apple Inc’s smartphone supply chain has earned the locality the nickname of iPhone City. “Production at the Foxconn campus is proceeding well with some 200,000 workers,” the newspaper said, citing Foxconn managers within the compound. “The supply lines haven’t been affected by COVID.”
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
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