EQUITIES
TAIEX rallies despite war
The TAIEX yesterday made a significant technical comeback after heavy losses last week triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bargain hunters could be found across the board, with the electronics sector — which had been hard hit — in focus. Buying also rotated to raw material stocks on the back of rising product prices, as well as shipping stocks due to hopes of high cash dividends, dealers said. However, the TAIEX failed to reach 18,000 during the session, as high technical hurdles remained above that level, the dealers added. The TAIEX closed up 246.07 points, or 1.39 percent, at 17,898.25. Turnover totaled NT$357.919 billion (US$12.77 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$6.33 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
EQUITIES
Foreign buyers offload tech
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$166.54 billion of local shares after selling NT$6.31 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$195.02 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), while the top three bought were Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Tatung Co (大同) and Macronix International Co (旺宏), the exchange said. The market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$23.38 trillion, or 42.74 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Inergy rises 3% on debut
Shares in Inergy Technology Inc (廣閎科技), a fabless IC design firm that provides green energy solutions, yesterday rose 3.02 percent on the firm’s Taipei Exchange trading debut, following a well-received share sale last month. The shares opened at NT$122.5 and rose as high as NT$129.5 in the morning session before paring gains to close the day at NT$119.5, which was 3.02 percent higher than the initial offering price of NT$116 per share. Inergy was established in 2007 and is based in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北). It offers integrated power components that are optimized for system applications, as well as integrated power modules for motor drives and hall sensors. It reported net profit of NT$74.093 million in the first three quarters of last year, down from NT$17.613 million a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$1.82. Revenue last year rose 40.9 percent to NT$1.212 billion from NT$860.44 million in 2020.
INVESTMENTS
Scams rose 72% in 2021
The number of investment scams last year rose 72 percent annually to 4,904 cases, with total financial losses doubling to NT$2.08 billion, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Thursday last week, citing data compiled by the National Policy Agency (NPA). The figure accounted for 19.7 percent of total scams that the Criminal Investigation Bureau addressed last year, second only to online shopping scams at 22.8 percent, NPA data showed. The bureau has categorized three main types of investment scams: online gambling, cryptocurrency investments and overseas investments, Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) said. Firms attending a financial crime seminar on Wednesday in Taipei had proposed that the NPA and the commission should have a platform to exchange information and crack down on such scams.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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