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.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move