Uncertainty from the second term of US President Donald Trump is expected to become a regular theme, haunting the capital market this year, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Peng Jin-lung (彭金隆) said yesterday.
Trump’s economic policies are expected to dictate the financial markets, while the US Federal Reserve will likely adjust interest rates and impact Taiwan’s foreign exchange and stock markets, Peng said at a news conference in New Taipei City.
The commission will continue to pay close attention to the conditions of the local capital market, but it will not make any predictions on market performances, he said.
Photo: CNA
Still, Peng said he remained “cautiously optimistic” about Taiwan’s financial market this year, urging the local financial industry to be more alert to risks, improve its operations, and eventually return benefits to society, such as by raising employees’ wages or increasing benefits for them.
Riding the waves of sound fundamentals, the local financial industry, which compromises the banking, securities and insurance sectors, raked in NT$1.02 trillion (US $31.1 billion) in combined net profit in the first 11 months of last year, up 44.15 percent from a year earlier and topping the NT$1 trillion mark for the first time, Peng said.
In addition, the local capital market also showed its strength, with the TAIEX soaring 28.47 percent last year, the highest gain among the markets in Asia, as the average daily turnover reached NT$412.4 billion, up 46.65 percent from 2023, statistics compiled by the commission showed.
Meanwhile, the FSC is exploring the possibility of requiring financial holding firms initiating a tender offer to acquire another firm to use all cash during the initial stage of the acquisition, Peng said.
This measure aims to prevent arbitrage, which could cause market volatility and disrupt market order, he said.
The commission is also considering the possibility of raising the current 10 percent threshold for financial holding firms targeted by buyers during the first stage of an acquisition deal, Peng said.
The FSC will continue engaging with the industry regarding the rule changes and is likely to announce the adjustments after the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Saturday, he added.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
RSS