Shares rise as investors cheer
Shares closed 2.06 percent higher yesterday as investors cheered two days of solid gains on Wall Street and hints that the US may cut interest rates next month, dealers said.
A pullback in oil prices also lifted investor sentiment, encouraging buying of large-caps and conglomerates, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 170.77 points at 8,447.03, after moving in the range of 8,376.09 and 8,481.45, on turnover of NT$120.99 billion (US$3.75 billion).
Risers led decliners 1,394 to 660, with 390 stocks unchanged. A total of 22 stocks closed limit-up, while 30 were limit-down.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar ended the day's session at NT$32.300 to the US dollar, up NT$0.026 from the previous close.
NPL ratio steady
The local banking sector's asset quality was little changed after its non-performing loans (NPL) ratio maintained its level at 2.16 percent last month, Financial Supervisory Commission statistics showed yesterday.
The nation's 39 banks had a total of NT$380.9 billion (US$11.79 billion) in bad loans by the end of last month -- a fall of NT$900 million from September, the data showed.
The NPL ratio for unsecured credit card and cash card loans also fluctuated slightly. The nation's 42 credit card issuers had a total of NT$120.1 billion in consumer lending, 2.13 percent of which turned sour last month -- up from September's 2.11 percent.
The bad loan ratio of cash card lending further declined by 0.26 percent from the previous month to 6.53 percent last month, the commission said.
RBC ratio limit set at 200%
Beginning from January, the nation's insurance companies will be required to maintain a benchmarked risk-based capital (RBC) ratio of above 200 percent or face a penalty, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
Empowered by revisions to the Insurance Law (保險法), the financial regulator will be entitled to suspend sales of insurance products by insurers, life or non-life, whose RBC ratios fall within the 200 percent to 150 percent level, or restrict their management from collecting salaries or bonuses.
Board members of insurers whose RBC ratio drops below 150 percent will be relieved from their posts until improvements are made, the commission said.
The worst that can happen to insurers is the regulator stepping in to take over debt-ridden companies if RBC ratios fall to a single digit percentage figure, although the commission has yet to earmark a standard level at which insurers exit the market.
Novatek to acquire Cheertek
Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), Taiwan's biggest maker of chips for liquid-crystal displays, will acquire Cheertek Inc (其樂達) through a share swap valued at NT$3.58 billion (US$111 million).
Novatek will issue new shares and trade one for every 3.75 of Cheertek's stock, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
The swap ratio is equivalent to a 29 percent premium of Cheertek's closing price yesterday at NT$27.50. Novatek ended trading unchanged at NT$133.
The takeover will be effective from June 30, the companies said in the statement.
Merrill Lynch now hiring
Merrill Lynch & Co said it will hire at least 60 people for its private banking unit in Taiwan by the end of next year.
"The potential for wealth management is so high that we plan to start our private client services in the first quarter of next year," company spokesman Albert Lee (李玉秋) said in an interview in Taipei yesterday.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS