Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) shares jumped 3.5% in US pre-market trading after the giant chipmaker said the industry could be poised for recovery.
Third-quarter net profit fell 25% to T$211 billion, beating a T$195.5 billion consensus compiled by LSEG.
The world's largest contract semiconductor company also said it had started to see demand stabilise in the PC and smartphone end markets, guiding to better than anticipated fourth-quarter revenue.
Chief executive CC Wei said: "We can expect 2024 to be a healthy growth year for TSMC."
Wei said the industry was "very close" to the bottom of the market, but added that it was hard to tell how strong the recovery would be.
Sales strength in the quarter was driven by improvements in mobile handset and Internet of Things end markets as well as a continuing solid contribution from high-performance computing.
Higher utilization rates and favorable exchange rates offset increased costs, driving better gross margins than expected.
Broker Wedbush said: "While we had seen some potential for TSMC upside (vs. consensus), the guide for 11% Q/Q growth was meaningfully ahead of our expectations, with the expected improvement driving upside to our prior earnings estimates."