EQUITIES
TAIEX falls 0.62 percent
The TAIEX yesterday closed lower as market sentiment remained cautious due to lingering concerns over moves by central banks worldwide to tighten monetary policy, dealers said. Selling was seen across the board, focusing particularly on transportation and financial shares, while the bellwether electronics sector was somewhat resilient, they said. Bucking the downturn on the TAIEX, biotechnology stocks attracted buying on a spike in domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases, they added. The TAIEX closed down 105.31 points, or 0.62 percent, at 16,898.87. Turnover totaled NT$228.800 billion (US$7.84 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$10.42 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The electronics sector fell 0.11 percent, with the semiconductor sub-index down only 0.08 percent, while the transportation sector fell 2.70 percent and the financial sector lost 2.05 percent.
EQUITIES
Foreign sell-off continues
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$55.59 billion of local shares after selling a net NT$83.02 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$608.4 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), while the top three shares they bought were China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), Ta Chen Stainless Pipe Co (大成不銹鋼) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), the exchange said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$21.6 trillion, or 40.97 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
AIRLINES
Tigerair to sell NFTs
Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航) yesterday announced plans to sell non-fungible tokens (NFT) of images of its tiger mascot. In a statement, Tigerair said that the NFTs, which are being produced in cooperation with Taiwan’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, MaiCoin Ltd (現代財富科技), would go on sale next month. Those who buy the NFTs will get the chance to go on a trip to France to take part in the delivery of an A320neo plane, the airline said. In addition, buyers will also get the right to fly with Tigerair in unoccupied seats as a crew member by paying only the taxes. Tigerair chairman Chen Han-ming (陳漢銘) said that NFTs, a unique cryptographic token that can be associated with reproducible digital files such as photographs, videos and audio, are beginning to be seen as a viable way to sell digital art.
SEMICONDUCTORS
PRC production shrinks
China’s quarterly production of semiconductors shrank for the first time since early 2019 as demand for consumer electronics softened and COVID-19 lockdowns in regions, including Shanghai, disrupted output. Output of integrated circuits dropped 4.2 percent in the first three months of the year as chipmakers reported a steeper decline last month, National Bureau of Statistics data showed. It was the worst quarterly performance since the first quarter of 2019 when the nation’s chip output slumped 8.7 percent. Demand for smartphones, PCs and TVs has been hurt by China’s lockdown measures, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman to Mark Liu (劉德音) said.
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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