EQUITIES
TAIEX ends flat
Local shares yesterday closed flat after giving up earlier gains as the bellwether electronics sector came under pressure, dragging down the broader market, dealers said. While select old-economy stocks, in particular in the transportation and steel sectors, as well as the financial sector, remained strong throughout the session, market sentiment was cautious over the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, they said. The TAIEX ended down 1.7 points at 17,263.04 after moving between 17,217.58 and 17,363.04. Turnover was NT$286.16 billion (US$10.03 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$16.15 billion of shares.
EQUITIES
Foreign net sales surge
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$180.98 billion of local shares after selling NT$63.44 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$439.44 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), while the top three shares they bought were Innolux Corp (群創), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Wisdom Marine Lines Co (慧洋海運), the exchange said. The market cap of shares held by foreign investors was NT$22.35 trillion, or 41.75 percent of total market cap, it said.
ENERGY
Hsing Mien to invest NT$800m
Hsing Mien Industry Co (信銘工業) plans to invest NT$800 million to expand its manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday, as it approved the industrial gas provider’s application to join the government’s “Invest in Taiwan” initiative. The company plans to expand capacity at a plant at the Ping Nan Industrial Park (屏南工業區) in Pingtung County and increase production lines at a plant in Kaohsiung’s Dafa Industrial Park (大發工業區), the ministry said. Hsing Mien provides a wide range of industrial bulk gas and liquid gas used in different industrial applications, with customers including semiconductor companies and other high-tech firms.
TAXES
Receipt lottery raises wins
The National Taxation Administration on Friday said it would increase the number of NT$500 prize-winning receipts for its Cloud Uniform Invoice lottery to encourage the use of cloud invoices. Starting with the January-February draw, the number of NT$500 prize winners would be increased from 1 million to 1.65 million. The number of prize-winning receipts for the NT$1 million, NT$2,000 and NT$800 prizes is to remain unchanged at 30, 16,000 and 100,000 respectively, the agency said.
ELECTRONICS
Foxconn Industrial profit up
Foxconn Industrial Internet Co (富士康工業互聯網), Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) Shanghai-listed subsidiary that specializes in industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) solutions, yesterday reported that net profit last year grew 14.77 percent from a year earlier to 20.01 billion yuan (US$3.15 billion), it said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. That translated into earnings per share of 1.01 yuan, up from 0.88 yuan. Revenue rose 1.8 percent year-on-year to a record high 439.56 billion yuan. Foxconn Industrial attributed the growth to robust demand for cloud computing, IIoT, articificial intelligence and 5G-related applications.
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
RSS