EQUITIES
TAIEX closes slightly lower
The TAIEX yesterday closed slightly lower as government-led funds were believed to have intervened to support the local main board amid ongoing global volatility. Despite the aid, contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) fell below NT$400 for the first time in more than two years as the local tech sector remained affected by the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hike cycle and Washington’s new ban on certain chip exports to China. The TAIEX was down 24.79 points, or 0.19 percent, at 13,081.24, as the electronics sector was up by 0.29 percent and the semiconductor sub-index fell by 0.82 percent. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$181.556 billion (US$5.7 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$16.64 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
LOGISTICS
Dimerco to buy back shares
Freight forwarder Dimerco Express Corp (中菲行) yesterday said it plans to launch a share buyback program for the first time in the company’s history to protect shareholders’ interests. The company is to repurchase 3 million common shares for NT$317 million at the most, it said in a regulatory filing after its board of directors approved the proposal. Dimerco proposes to repurchase shares at NT$45.3 to NT$104.3 per share, the filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. It is to buy back shares over the next two months, beginning tomorrow and ending on Dec. 13, it added. The company posted revenue of NT$3.08 billion last month, down 10.34 percent month-on-month and 19.8 percent year-on-year, due to falling demand. The company’s shares closed 2.73 percent lower at NT$60.50, down 62 percent from a high of NT$160 in June last year, exchange data showed.
ELECTRONICS
MediaTek posts record sales
Smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Tuesday recorded its second-highest monthly sales for last month, with analysts attributing the performance to phone launches by customers. The company posted NT$56.57 billion in consolidated sales, up 26.56 percent from a month earlier and 18.09 percent from a year earlier, trailing only March’s NT$59.18 billion. Consolidated sales totaled NT$142.16 billion in the third quarter, within the company’s forecast range of NT$141.7 billion to NT$154.2 billion. However, third-quarter revenues fell 8.71 percent compared with the second quarter due to some customers adjusting their inventories. In the first nine months, consolidated sales totaled NT$440.6 billion, up 20.79 percent from a year earlier, MediaTek said, adding that it expects full-year sales to grow 17 to 19 percent this year from last year, a downgrade from its previous estimate of a 20 percent annual increase due to inventory adjustments among its clients.
ELECTRONICS
Pixel 7 launches today
Google’s newest smartphones — the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro — and its first smart watch, the Pixel Watch, are to go on sale in Taiwan today, Google Taiwan vice president of hardware Elmer Peng (彭昱鈞) said last week. Peng said the addition of the Pixel Watch to the line of smartphones and Pixel Buds earphones has created a more comprehensive product portfolio. Prices for the 6.3-inch Pixel 7, 6.7-inch Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel Watch are to start from NT$18,990, NT$26,990 and NT$10,990 respectively, Google said.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
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