Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said yesterday the National Stabilization Fund (國安基金) would not make any adjustments in the near future despite the fact it gained nearly NT$10 billion (US$296 million) in book value in the last seven months.
Lee issued the comments while taking questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Teh-fu (林德福) at the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee about whether the Ministry of Finance (MOF) would consider materializing the profits.
Lee said the fund, intended to stabilize the equities market, had increased by about NT$10 billion in book value after entering the local bourse in September last year, when the TAIEX stood at around 5,800 points.
The main bourse fell yesterday in line with weaker regional markets after a Wall Street loss on Tuesday. The benchmark TAIEX dropped 17.49 points, or 0.29 percent, to close at 5,875.19 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The index has risen 28 percent so far this year, stock exchange data showed.
“The fund had better stay put in the short term as many remain divided about the financial market’s performance, though the index has recovered to the 5,800-point mark,” Lee said. “It should stick to its mission and operate in a stable and cautious manner.”
On Monday, the management committee of the state-owned National Stabilization Fund said it had decided not to sell the equities it had purchased to stabilize the stock market. The fund injected some NT$60 billion into the stock market in the last three months of last year, it said.
Lin yesterday questioned the wisdom of such inaction, saying that the profits could evaporate once the recent stock rallies come to an end.
But Lee said the fund was not profit-oriented and the government would bear the consequences of its decision.
The minister assured the lawmakers that the country’s fiscal condition remained stable despite rising debt attributable to stimulus measures to battle the recession.
The increasing government spending led Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) on Tuesday to downgrade its outlook on Taiwan’s sovereign rating to “negative” from “stable.”
“What S&P said about the nation’s fiscal condition is objective and true,” Lee said. “It is also true the state coffers will make do, despite the strain.”
Financial shares ended lower after the S&P report.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan’s biggest listed financial-services company, declined 0.3 percent to NT$35.55, while Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the second-largest, retreated 0.8 percent to NT$25.90.
“The financial industry is already in very poor health, so a bad report by S&P only serves to crush investor confidence further,” said Stanley Chou, a trader at Mega International Investment Service Corp (兆豐國際投顧).
S&P said in a statement on Tuesday liabilities in the financial sector may exceed 48 percent of GDP in a worst-case economic downturn.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY BLOOMBERG
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS