Companies listed on the main board posted a year-on-year increase in pretax profit in the first quarter, as the economy at home and abroad continues its recovery, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data released yesterday showed.
Companies listed on the exchange earned NT$503.7 billion (US$16.85 billion) in pretax profit, up 11.29 percent from a year earlier, the TWSE said.
The Internet and communications, plastics, and semiconductor industries anchored the earnings growth during the January-to-March period, it said.
The Internet and communications industry benefited from disposal of assets and revenue from licensing, while the plastics sector was boosted by solid global demand, the exchange said.
The semiconductor industry enjoyed strong demand for high-tech devices, as well as an increase in product prices, in particular for memory chips, such as dynamic random access chips, which have been in short supply, it added.
The companies’ revenue totaled NT$6.75 trillion in the quarter, up 6.72 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
The profit reports were submitted by 831 Taiwan-incorporated firms and 70 firms registered overseas that have their primary listings in Taiwan, the exchange said.
However, the data did not cover the 14 financial holding companies listed on the board, as they do not release their first-quarter results until the end of the month, it added.
Taiwanese firms’ pretax profit rose 12.26 percent from a year earlier to NT$491.5 billion, while pretax profit of the foreign companies fell 17.57 percent to NT$12.2 billion, the data showed.
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