After fears of an escalating trade war between China and the US caused volatility in global markets last week, the local stock market is counting on listed companies’ first-quarter sales reports and business updates to provide some resilience against external uncertainties, analysts said.
In light of a more than 2 percent decline in the three main Wall Street indices last week, the TAIEX might test the half-year moving average of 10,774 points today, when the market resumes trading after a three-day closure for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday last week, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) quoted Boryi Chien (簡伯儀), a senior manager at Cathay Securities Co (國泰證券), as saying yesterday.
The TAIEX last week ended 0.9 percent lower than the previous week at 10,821.53 points, with an average daily turnover of about NT$109.77 billion, lower than NT$113.23 billion in the preceding week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Several heavyweight local companies — including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and the four major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) — are to release their quarterly sales results this week.
Twenty-four listed companies are to open the earnings season, with handset camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光), contact lens maker Ginko International Co (金可國際), solar wafer supplier Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美晶), semiconductor wafer maker GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) and others to release their latest financial results and shed light on their business outlook.
The Ministry of Finance is today to release the foreign trade data for last month, which are likely to show a substantial rebound in exports from February, when outbound shipments were affected by the Lunar New Year holiday, as well as a widening of the trade surplus, market watchers said.
However, developments in the US-China trade row, geopolitical risks and the outlook for US technology stocks would be key determinants of the local stock market in the second quarter, Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise Co (保德信投信) said, according to a report by the Central News Agency on Saturday.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) also advised investors to place more weight on risk than reward in the belief that reducing holdings is sensible for investors in an environment of rising uncertainty, especially rising trade protectionism.
“For investors that need to maintain their holdings, a more balanced approach — i.e., increasing dividend plays — could at the very least reduce risks,” Yuanta Securities regional head of research Vincent Chen (陳豊丰) said in a recent note.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
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