Profit-taking reverses gains
Taiwanese shares closed down 0.11 percent yesterday as profit-taking reversed early gains on Wall Street’s rally overnight, dealers said.
The TAIEX index fell 7.6 points to 6,973.28 on turnover of NT$149.4 billion (US$4.55 billion).
Losers led gainers 1,265 to 1,054, with 182 stocks unchanged.
The market opened up 0.94 percent after Wall Street rose above the 9,000 point mark for the first time since early January, but investors immediately pocketed profit to take advantage of recent gains, dealers said.
“Investors tend to buy on hopes and sell on news. It was no surprise to witness the market stage the pullback,” Capital Securities (群益證券) analyst Chen Yu-yu (陳育娛) said.
Fuel suppliers raise prices
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and its privately run rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday that they would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.6 a liter, effective today.
Prices for domestic diesel and alcohol-gasoline blends will also be hiked by NT$0.7 per liter to reflect rising fuel costs, the two companies said.
Capital inflows boost M1B, M2
The nation’s monetary aggregates increased last month, with M1B and M2 jumping 17.3 percent and 8.15 percent respectively, the central bank said yesterday.
The monetary regulator attributed the increase in both gauges chiefly to capital inflows over which the agency said it had relatively limited control.
Dawn Chen (陳一端), deputy chief of the central bank’s economic research department, said the pickup in M1B, which refers to currency held by the public and demand deposits, marked the fastest pace since Sept 2004.
The sharp rise in M1B also helped push up the M2 measure, which includes M1B and time deposits, Chen said.
FBHK rating to remain: S&P
Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd’s (FBHK, 富邦香港) offer on Wednesday to repurchase the so-called Lehman Brothers minibonds from investors is not expected to affect its rating at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, the international ratings agency said in a statement yesterday.
Under an agreement reached with Hong Kong authorities, FBHK will pay out an estimated HK$321 million (US$41 million) for the minibonds. The lender plans to pay at least 60 percent or 70 percent of the respective nominal principal value, depending on the age of customers, according to the company’s statement issued on Wednesday.
S&P said the bank needed to set aside a significant amount of provisioning for the proposed repurchase, which could undermine the bank’s standalone credit profile.
“Nevertheless, we regard FBHK as a strategically important subsidiary of Taiwan-based Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and expect parental support to continue to underpin the rating,” S&P said in the statement.
NT dollar falls in last minute
The New Taiwan dollar fell in the final minute of trading in Taipei, erasing gains earlier this week, on speculation the central bank intervened to curb appreciation that may hurt exporters.
The NT dollar fell NT$0.153 to close at NT$32.955 against the US dollar as of 4pm, unchanged from the end of last week, Taipei Forex Inc said. It traded at NT$32.790 a minute earlier and reached NT$32.73 on Tuesday. Turnover was US$683 million.
“There was central bank buying towards the end, at NT$32.78 all the way to the NT$32.955 closing,” said Daniel Soh, an economist at Forecast Singapore Pte Ltd, citing conversations with traders.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS