EQUITIES
Shih vows re-energization
The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s (TWSE) newly appointed chairman, Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉), yesterday said he would work to re-energize local capital markets and further enhance the average price-to-earnings ratio of stocks listed on the main bourse and the over-the-counter exchange. Shih made the remarks during a handover ceremony in Taipei, where he received the official seal from his predecessor, Lee Sush-der (李述德). Shih, formerly a minister without portfolio, said one of his goals is to raise the stock market’s average daily turnover to between NT$100 billion and NT$120 billion (US$3.1 billion and US$3.7 billion). The TWSE also aims to expand ties with its foreign peers, he said.
EQUITIES
TWSE signs memorandum
The Taiwan Stock Exchange has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bursa Malaysia Bhd that commits the two sides to cooperating more closely. It was the second memorandum inked by the TWSE and Bursa Malaysia to strengthen their strategic partnership. The first was signed in 1999 and covered trading information exchanges.
EQUITIES
TPEX to focus on small firms
Former Securities and Futures Bureau deputy director-general Chang Li-chen (張麗真) yesterday took over as acting chairman and president of the Taipei Exchange (TPEX), which is in charge of the nation’s over-the-counter bourse and serves bond trading in Taiwan. Taking over from her predecessor, Lee Chi-hsien (李啟賢), Chang said at a handover ceremony that the TPEX would make efforts to become the cradle of small and medium-sized enterprises, the key driving force of the local bonds market and the advocate of innovative industries. The exchange would also develop platforms for creative products, Chang added.
E-COMMERCE
Momo.com to open facility
Momo.com Inc (富邦媒), an online, TV and catalogue shopping subsidiary of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), is to open a new automated logistics center in Taoyuan in the second quarter of next year, the firm said in a statement yesterday. This is to be the company’s first wholly owned logistics center, Momo.com said, adding that it would help reduce delivery times and warehouse rental costs. The company said it plans to expand its operational scope by investing in two more logistics centers in central and southern Taiwan in the next few years. In the first five months of the year, cumulative sales totaled NT$11.44 billion, up by 9.2 percent from the same period last year, company data showed.
ELECTRONICS
Sampo reports rise in sales
Home appliance maker Sampo Corp (聲寶) yesterday said sales for last month would total about NT$1.1 billion, up from NT$1.08 billion in May, due to the summer peak season for the home appliances and consumer electronics industry. Second-quarter sales are likely to be higher than the first quarter’s NT$2.65 billion and could increase from a year ago, Sampo spokesman Peter Chiang (江全田) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. As Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has acquired Japan’s Sharp Corp and is to be fully in charge of sales and marketing of Sharp products in Taiwan, Sampo plans to end its joint venture with the Japanese firm, Sharp Corp Taiwan (夏寶), if it gains shareholders’ approval in a meeting on Tuesday next week, Chiang said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
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