EQUITIES
Foreigners sell more shares
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$1.9 billion (US$63.7 million) of local shares after selling a net NT$40.07 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$954.98 billion of local shares since the beginning of the year, the exchange said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were Innolux Corp (群創光電), China Steel Corp (中鋼) and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), AUO Corp (友達光電) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the exchange said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$18.07 trillion, or 40.11 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
ELECTRONICS
Ennoconn revenue soars
Ennoconn Corp (樺漢科技), an industrial computer subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday said its revenue for last month, the second quarter and the first six months of the year all were the highest levels for the same period in the company’s history. Consolidated revenue was NT$10.39 billion last month, up 23.3 percent month-on-month and 22.9 percent year-on-year, Ennoconn said in a statement. Second-quarter revenue grew 11.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 18.3 percent year-on-year to NT$26.98 billion, driven by the company’s design and systems integration segments, it said. Coupled with stable growth in its brand business, revenue in the first half of the year rose 19.1 percent year-on-year to NT$51.2 billion, the company said, adding that it is optimistic about its outlook for the second half.
BANKING
Multilingual ATM target set
The Financial Supervisory Commission has set a target for local banks to raise the number of multilingual ATMs to account for 50 percent of their total machines by the end of this year. The commission has also demanded that banks increase their number of bilingual branches in the domestic market, it said on Thursday last week. While the commission did not set a specific target on the number of bilingual branches, it expects the number to grow from 479 currently, it said. The anticipated increases in the number of multilingual ATMs and bilingual branches are part of the commission’s efforts to promote more inclusive financial services, which also include the setup of digital savings accounts and the use of mobile payments, it added.
PROPERTY
Pan told to go bankrupt
Distressed property tycoon Pan Sutong (潘蘇通) has been told by the Hong Kong High Court to go bankrupt, marking another blow to the former billionaire. The court ordered Pan to unwind his holding company, Silver Starlight Ltd, after he and the firm failed to pay creditors including China Citic Bank Corp (中信銀行) HK$8 billion (US$1 billion at the current exchange rate) that was due in 2019, a court filing showed on Friday. A representative for Pan yesterday said that he is appealing the order. Once among Asia’s wealthiest people, Pan fell from grace after shares of Goldin Financial Holdings Ltd (高銀金融) plunged amid a property collapse, erasing most of his US$27 billion fortune. Last month, he resigned as chairman and executive director of Goldin Financial after the sale of the firm’s flagship skyscraper collapsed.
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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