PRE-MARKET TAIWAN AND SINGAPORE STOCKS NEWS: Hon Hai beat on earnings, Nasdaq 100 was underpinned in US trade following encouraging tech earnings although futures are quiet overnight, while tech strength has rolled over into Asia

Formosa Plastics Corp (1301 TT) - Co. is partnering with Japan's Daicel to establish a 50-50 joint venture producing electronic-grade photoresist thinner as semiconductor-material demand grows amid the AI boom. (Taipei Times)

Hon Hai Precision Industry (2317 TT) - Co. Q2 (TWD) net 59.97bln (exp. 58.38bln), operating profit 94.8bln (exp. 80.53bln), revenue 2.53tln (exp. 2.41tln), expects Q3 revenue to rise strongly Y/Y and maintains a positive outlook for next year; Co. said strong AI demand has effectively eliminated the traditional quiet season and it will continue increasing capex. (Newswires)

Tech – Nasdaq was underpinned in US trade following encouraging tech earnings, while strength in the sector has rolled over into Asia.

City Developments (CIT SP) - Co. H1 (SGD) net rose 230.7% Y/Y to SGD 301.6mln, revenue rose 61.0% Y/Y to SGD 2.72bln. (Newswires)

Sembcorp Industries (SCI SP) - Co. H1 (SGD) net fell 72.0% Y/Y to SGD 150mln, revenue rose 28% Y/Y to SGD 3.77bln, interim dividend raised to SGD 0.11/shr from SGD 0.09/shr Y/Y. (Newswires)

Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP) - Co. Q1 (SGD) net fell 71.6% Y/Y to SGD 818mln due to the non-recurrence of exceptional gains, underlying net rose 21% Y/Y to SGD 831mln, operating revenue rose 4.9% Y/Y to SGD 3.56bln; mobile service revenue fell 4% Y/Y, while roaming revenue rose on higher wholesale volumes. (Edge Singapore)

ST Engineering (STE SP) - Co. H1 (SGD) net rose 27.1% Y/Y to SGD 512.1mln, revenue rose 11.0% Y/Y to SGD 6.57bln, interim dividend SGD 0.05/shr, with another SGD 0.05/shr interim dividend planned for Q3; order book stood at SGD 35.7bln, of which SGD 5.7bln is expected to be delivered during the remainder of 2026. (Dow Jones Newsplus)

Hon Hai is the canonical AI-supply-chain bellwether, and beats on this scale have historically mattered less for the stock itself than for what they signal across the Taiwanese complex: TSMC, the ODM peer set, and the memory and components names that trade off the same server-capex narrative. The phrase that strong AI demand has eliminated the traditional quiet season is the kind of guidance language that, when corroborated by peers in the same reporting window, has tended to re-rate the whole chain rather than a single name; when left uncorroborated, the moves have faded within sessions. The transmission into Asia here runs through the Nasdaq close, a familiar pattern in which US megacap tech results set the overnight tone and Asian hardware follows at the open, with futures quietness suggesting the move is positioning-driven rather than fresh news. The Formosa Plastics and Daicel photoresist thinner venture fits the broader pattern of materials and chemicals names re-rating on AI-adjacent capacity stories, a theme that has periodically run ahead of the underlying earnings. On the Singapore side the prints are idiosyncratic: headline swings driven by the non-recurrence of one-off gains, with the underlying figures the relevant read. Worth watching next is whether Hon Hai's capex language is echoed by other ODM and foundry reporting, and whether the AI-driven breadth holds beyond the index heavyweights.