The 950 Taiwanese and 88 overseas companies with primary listings on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) reported combined pretax profit of NT$4.89 trillion (US$147.3 billion) for last year, up 38.33 percent from NT$3.54 trillion a year earlier, the exchange said yesterday.
The TWSE-listed firms generated NT$41.8 trillion in combined revenue, an increase of 13.32 percent from NT$36.88 trillion, the exchange said in a statement.
The increase in pretax profit came as listed technology companies benefitted from rising demand for cloud data services and high-performance computing amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, the exchange said.
Photo: CNA
Last year, 854 TWSE-listed companies posted gains in pretax profit, especially those in the semiconductor, financial services and shipping sectors, the exchange said.
Financial services providers benefited from positive market conditions, which led to an increase in investment gains, handling fees and other incomes last year, the TWSE said.
Firms in the semiconductor sector posted strong bottom lines last year as they were able to leverage advanced technology and diversified supply chain deployment to seize the AI business opportunities, while the Red Sea crisis pushed higher freight fees and contributed to profit increases in the shipping sector, it said.
Listed companies that saw their profit drop last year were mainly those in the plastics, steel, and oil, electricity and gas sectors due to deteriorated market fundamentals, the exchange said.
Firms in the plastics sector suffered from oversupply by their Chinese peers and a decline in investment gains, steel makers were also hit by China’s overcapacity and weak end-market demand worldwide, while falling crude oil prices contributed to profit falls in the oil, electricity and gas sector, it said.
Meanwhile, the combined pretax profit of the 846 companies on the over-the-counter Taipei Exchange (TPEX) rose 15.27 percent to NT$314.5 billion last year, while their combined revenue increased 7.24 percent to NT$2.78 trillion from a year earlier, the smaller exchange said in a separate statement.
The TPEX said that 640 firms posted higher profit than the previous year, led by those in the electronic components, cultural and creative services, and other electronics sectors.
In addition, many over-the-counter companies reported improved fundamentals that deserve investors’ attention, the exchange said, adding that 66 companies’ earnings per share (EPS) exceeded NT$10 and 120 firms’ EPS were between NT$5 and NT$10, while 200 were between NT$2 and NT$5.
Aspeed Technology Inc (信驊), an IC designer specializing in cloud and enterprise solutions with product portfolio including baseboard management controllers, reported EPS of NT$68.04 for last year, the highest among firms listed on the OTC market, as net profit rose to NT$2.6 billion from NT$1 billion and revenue increased to NT$6.5 billion from NT$3.1 billion a year earlier.
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