China ties drive TAIEX higher
The TAIEX closed 2.28 percent higher yesterday on hopes of closer economic links with China after the government lifted its restrictions on Chinese investors, dealers said.
The index rose 146.81 points to 6,578.97 on turnover of NT$105.53 billion (US$3.22 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,846 to 449, while 106 stocks remained unchanged.
The market opened higher and outperformed other markets in the region, spurred by the lifting of the decades-old restrictions on investment by Chinese individuals and businesses, analysts said.
“Asset-related and banking plays led the early trade, as investors believed they would benefit from the announcement,” Capital Securities (群益證券) analyst Chen Yu-yu (陳育娛) said.
Delegation leaves for Beijing
50-member delegation of legislators and bank representatives left yesterday for a five-day visit to Beijing to gain a deeper understanding of China’s banking sector, ahead of the possible signing of a memorandum of understanding on financial supervision cooperation between Taiwan and China.
The delegation, led by ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), is composed of 15 lawmakers on the Legislature’s Finance Committee, Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) chairman Wang Rong-jou (王榮周) and the heads of many other banks.
The delegates will be visiting Chinese financial and banking regulators — the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission — and state-run banks. They will also meet with Wang Yi (王毅), head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
Banking restrictions lifted
Banks and financial institutions are now allowed to offer their services and lend to Chinese companies and Chinese individuals that have Taiwan residency permits as part of the government’s opening measures to Chinese investment, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.
Domestic banks can also extend foreign-currency loans to Chinese companies that have received permission to set up branches in Taiwan, the commission said.
Simplified Chinese added to site
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) added an option of using simplified Chinese characters to navigate its trade services Web site yesterday.
The simplified Chinese version of Taiwantrade allows traders in China to better grasp developments in Taiwan’s industrial and export sectors, TAITRA said.
The non-profit trade-promotion organization said that it received more than 9,000 inquiries about products or trade opportunities from China, Hong Kong and Macau in the first six months of this year, despite the global economic slowdown.
AIG to sell Taiwanese assets
American International Group Inc (AIG), the insurer bailed out by the US government, has agreed to sell the assets of its Taiwanese credit-card operation to Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀) for undisclosed terms.
The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in the third quarter, the New York-based insurer said in a statement on Tuesday.
NT dollar edges higher
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.033 to close at NT$32.785. A total of US$853 million changed hands.
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), 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. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
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
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
RSS