TAIEX rises slightly
Taiwanese shares gained 0.65 percent yesterday as investors hunted for bargains among shares likely to benefit from the expected opposition victory in weekend presidential elections, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 52.36 points or 0.65 percent at 8,057.82, off a low of 7,955.48 and a high of 8,082.57, with NT$102.28 billion (US$3.3 billion) changing hands.
Risers led decliners 1,108 to 915, with 336 stocks remaining unchanged.
Eighteen stocks closed limit-up and 47 were limit-down.
UMC up after dividend plan
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest custom-chip maker, rose the most in a month in Taipei trading after proposing an increase in the cash dividend for last year.
UMC gained 3.3 percent to NT$17.35 at the close of trade, the most since Feb. 14.
Hsinchu-based UMC plans to pay out NT$0.75 per share for last year, compared with NT$0.70 the year before.
It also plans to issue 45 new shares for each 1,000 held, the company said in a filing to the exchange on Monday.
CITIC drops Bear Stearns plan
China's CITIC Securities (中信證券) said yesterday it would pull out of an investment plan in Bear Stearns after the announcement that the troubled US bank was being sold at a fire-sale price to JPMorgan Chase.
"The foundation and premise for the strategic cooperation plan no longer exists," CITIC Securities said in a statement.
CITIC Securities said that the company has ceased all discussions with Bear Stearns on a cross-investment and cooperation plan and that the two companies would not sign any agreements in the future.
China to raise reserve ratio
China's central bank yesterday announced it would raise the amount of money that commercial banks must keep in reserve by half a percentage point as part of efforts to cool the economy.
The People's Bank of China said in a statement the bank reserve ratio would rise to 15.5 percent from Tuesday next week.
The rise is "in order to implement the requirements of tight monetary policy and continue to strengthen management of liquidity in the banking system and to guide the rational growth in money supply and credit," the bank said.
The increase, the second this year and the 12th since the beginning of last year, reduces the amount of money flowing through the economy.
China is trying to tame inflation that hit a 12-year high of 8.7 percent last month while cooling an economy that expanded by 11.4 percent last year.
SocGen trader to leave prison
A Paris court ruled yesterday that Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of causing record losses at French bank Societe Generale, could leave prison pending investigation, lawyers attending the court session said.
In January, SocGen unveiled 4.9 billion euros (US$7.73 billion) of losses that it said were caused by rogue deals carried out by Kerviel, who had a junior trading position at the bank.
Kerviel has been placed under formal investigation for breach of trust, computer abuse and falsification. He was expected to leave prison late yesterday after being held for five weeks.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange Tuesday, rising NT$0.103 to close at NT$30.747.
A total of US$1.14 billion changed hands yesterday.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
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