INVESTMENT
Foreign share sales dive
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$22.98 billion (US$776.04 million) in local shares after selling a net NT$107.81 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$913.014 billion in local shares since the beginning of the year, the exchange said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were Innolux Corp (群創光電), Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) and First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), it said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$19.08 trillion, or 40.12 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
RESTAURANTS
Thai chain optimistic
TTFB Co Ltd (瓦城泰統集團) yesterday gave an upbeat outlook for the second half of this year, as the number of local COVID-19 infections drop, domestic demand recovery expectations rise, and the food and beverage industry enters its high season. The company aims to boost its food delivery platform, integrate online and offline services, and leverage its strength in procurement to maximize profits and generate better returns for shareholders, the nation’s largest Thai and full-service restaurant chain operator said in a statement. TTFB shareholders yesterday approved the company’s plan to distribute a dividend of NT$7.15 per share, which represents a payout ratio of 101 percent based on earnings per share of NT$7.04 last year. The company made record earnings per share of NT$15.95 in 2020. As of the end of last month, the company operated 135 stores in Taiwan and four in China, it said.
ECONOMY
Tech demand boosts sales
Sales in the wholesale sector increased 7.9 percent year-on-year to NT$1.08 trillion last month, a record high for May, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday. That came as growing demand for new technology applications and rising raw material prices pushed up wholesale machinery equipment sales 12.3 percent and construction materials 3.9 percent last month, while sales of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products jumped 50 percent, as hospitals and pharmacies increased their stocks, the ministry said in a statement. In the first five months, total wholesale sales increased 9.8 percent to NT$5.31 trillion, the highest for the five-month period on record, ministry data showed.
INSURANCE
Firms fined for breaches
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday fined Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) NT$3 million and the Taiwan branch of Cardif Assurance Vie (法國巴黎人壽) NT$1.2 million, as the two firms contravened the Insurance Act (保險法) by failing to correctly inform their clients about purchases of investment-linked insurance policies. The commission said Taishn Bank’s agents encouraged three senior citizens to terminate their old insurance policies and use the surrender value to buy new investment-linked insurance products offered by Cardif Assurance. However, the bank pushed the transactions inappropriately by encouraging clients to terminate policies in advance and did not evaluate whether the new products fit the clients’ risk appetite, while the life insurer failed to examine the clients’ sources of funds for the new products, it said.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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