EQUITIES
TAIEX closes little changed
The TAIEX closed little changed yesterday after an early 100-point plunge triggered by a poor showing by US markets overnight amid fears over an outbreak of COVID-19. The weighted index closed 5.36 points, or 0.05 percent, higher at 11,540.23 on turnover of NT$153.815 billion (US$5.06 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$11.28 billion of shares after a net sale of NT$26.34 billion on Monday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. “It seemed that the market got solid technical support at the 120-day moving average of about 11,439 points,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
REAL ESTATE
Housing loans rise further
Housing loans and lending to the construction sector continued to increase last month, monthly data released by the central bank showed yesterday. Housing loans grew 6.16 percent year-on-year to NT$7.43 trillion, the bank’s tallies showed. The figure increased slightly by 0.18 percent from the previous month due to the effect of the Lunar New Year holiday, the bank said. Construction loans grew 12.75 percent year-on-year to NT$2.1 trillion last month. The number rose by just 0.48 percent from the previous month because of seasonal factors, the bank said.
INVESTMENTS
Foreign investments passed
The Investment Commission on Monday approved Samoa-registered Good Flavor Alpha Ltd’s application to invest NT$478 million to finance a Taiwanese enterprise making bread and other baked goods. It also approved a Hong Kong company’s plan to invest NT$360 million in a Taiwanese maker of computer and peripheral equipment and medical devices, as well as another Hong Kong firm’s investment of NT$224 million in a local chemical producer. In terms of outbound investment, Taichung-based Johnson Health Tech Co (喬山健康科技) received approval to invest ￥6.24 billion (US$56.4 million) to buy a 60 percent stake in Fuji Medical Instruments Manufacturing Co, the commission said.
FINANCE
SBI leads CoolBitX funding
Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings Inc is leading a group of investors participating in a Series B US$16.75 million funding round for CoolBitX (庫幣科技), a Taiwanese blockchain security company offering services to help crypto exchanges comply with more stringent international standards for collection of user information. Other participants in the fundraising include the National Development Fund, Japan’s Monex Group Inc and South Korean crypto exchange BitSonic, a CoolBitX press release said. SBI Holdings was among investors participating in the Series A US$13 million funding round in 2018, the company said.
PUBLISHING
‘Next Magazine’ closing
Taiwan’s version of the Chinese-language Next Magazine (壹週刊) is to cease online publication on Saturday, less than two years after closing its print edition and almost two decades after its launch. In a statement posted on its Web site last week, the publisher attributed the closure to a restructuring at its parent company, Hong Kong-based media conglomerate Next Digital Ltd (壹傳媒). The company said it would protect the rights of its employees, as well as subscribers, which would be given the choice of a cash refund or transferring their subscription to Taiwan’s Apple Daily Web site.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
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