The nation’s major financial institutions saw earnings weaken last month as their securities arms took a hit after the US Federal Reserve announced plans to wind down quantitative easing (QE).
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s second-largest financial service provider by assets, posted NT$1.79 billion (US$59.43 million) in net income last month, plummeting 51.09 percent from May, after Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) incurred a net loss of NT$20 million, the company said in a stock filing yesterday.
The TAIEX shed 2.33 percent, or 192.59 points, and turnover shrank by 18.6 percent last month after the US central bank signaled plans to taper off purchases of government bonds if the job market keeps improving.
Fubon Financial’s earnings also shrank because of a higher comparison base in May, when its received a NT$1 billion boost from the sale of shares in US credit card giants Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co (台北富邦銀行) generated NT$960 million in income, while Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) contributed another NT$2.21 billion, the filing said.
For the first half of the year, net profit totaled NT$17.86 billion, or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.87, Fubon Financial said.
Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), the most profitable state-run financial holding company, put in an equally weak performance last month, with net income plunging 49.13 percent from May to NT$1.26 billion, the company said on Monday.
Mega Financial’s main subsidiary, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), turned in a net profit of NT$1.63 billion last month, but Mega Securities Co (兆豐證券) lost NT$70 billion.
For the first half of the year, Mega Financial accumulated NT$11.92 billion in net income, or EPS of NT$1.04, the company said.
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) also saw earnings last month eroded by its securities arm, SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券), which incurred a net loss of NT$198 million.
Flagship unit Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) generated NT$940 million in net income, keeping the group in the black with a net profit of NT$713 million last month, down 45.69 percent from May, SinoPac Financial said on Friday.
The group’s cumulative earnings reached NT$5.88 billion, or EPS of NT$0.78.
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) reported a slowdown of 42.42 percent in profit last month to NT$403 million, underpinned by its banking arm, Yuanta Bank (元大銀行), which contributed a net income of NT$309 million, the securities-focused conglomerate said in a stock filing.
Yuanta Securities Co (元大寶來證券), the main subsidiary, managed to post a net income of NT$13 million, as profits from the brokerage business slightly offset losses from its proprietary trading division, the company said.
For the first half of the year, Yuanta Financial’s cumulative EPS reached NT$0.32, the filing showed.
The securities unit of E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) also reported a loss of NT$3.15 million last month, dragging down the group’s earnings to NT$699.93 million, the group said in a statement.
For the first six months of the year, E.Sun Financial had a net profit of NT$4.39 billion, translating into EPS of NT$0.88, the statement said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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