EQUITIES
Gogoro dives on US debut
Electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) on Tuesday made its debut on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, but its shares plunged more than 12 percent as tech stocks on the US market suffered heavy losses amid rising fears that the US Federal Reserve would become more aggressive in tightening its monetary policy. Gogoro, which is the first Taiwanese unicorn start-up to list its shares on the NASDAQ, closed down 12.3 percent at US$14.02, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ index fell 2.26 percent. Gogoro completed a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Poema Global Holdings Corp on Monday. It has been 16 years since a Taiwanese company has listed in the US, although Gogoro’s listing is a so-called backdoor listing, as Poema Global shares had previously been traded on the NASDAQ.
EQUITIES
Foreigners sell NT$7.2bn
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$7.2 billion (US$250.26 million) of local shares after buying a net NT$316.17 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$469.79 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were Innolux Corp (群創), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), while the top three shares they bought were China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控), the exchange said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$22.7 trillion, or 41.54 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
EQUITIES
Financial shares shine
Financial shares have grown into an investment bright spot on the local bourse, outperforming tech and non-tech shares due to interest rate hikes at home and abroad, analysts said last week. Financial shares gained 6 percent last month, bucking declines of 1 to 2 percent in tech and non-tech shares, Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (國泰投信) said. Investors expect financial stocks to benefit from widening interest spread after Taiwan and the US last month raised interest rates by 25 basis points and could increase them further to combat inflation, Cathay Securities said. The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 2 percentage points this year, which would be favorable for the TAIEX, it said, adding that it would be worthwhile increasing stakes in shares in the TAIEX, as the main board has fallen to a relative cheap point with a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.4, compared with 13 in October last year.
HOTELIERS
Forte Hotel Hsinchu closing
Forte Hotel Hsinchu (新竹福泰商務飯店) has announced that it plans to stop offering guestrooms on May 10 and exit the market at the end of the month, when its lease is due to expire. The hotel, which has 138 guestrooms, said that the closure has nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, as its occupancy rates have been 60 to 70 percent on average since the level 3 COVID-19 alert ended last year, thanks to a boom in domestic tourism. It said that it would not rule out a return to the market if the opportunity arises. Apart from the Hsinchu property, the group operates nine hotels in Taipei, Yilan, Taichung, Changhua and Chiayi. Four of them currently serve as quarantine facilities.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo (盧瑞麟) is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it. The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the territory’s biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world. “It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo said. “You see more Asians, but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities
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