The National Stabilization Fund’s (NSF) steering committee will meet tomorrow to discuss when to dispose of its local share holdings and whether a market-exit mechanism should be established.
Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) told a press conference yesterday that the fund aims to stabilize the stock market.
“The public should not listen to hearsay,” he said about rumors on the fund’s share disposal, adding that unconfirmed information would only cause panic.
PHOTO: MAURICE TSAI, BLOOMBERG
The fund, which was established by the government a decade ago to bolster the nation’s equities markets, bought domestic shares in late 2008, when the global financial crisis hit the nation.
Based on current market prices, Lee said the fund had an unrealized profit of between NT$20 billion (US$628 million) and NT$30 billion on NT$59.9 billion in shares it had bought in the local bourse.
Whether the NSF would be able to sell shares without the authorization of its board would be up to the steering committee’s resolutions, Lee said, noting that saying anything wrong, especially about the stock market, could easily cause a public upset.
Meanwhile, in response to questions of whether the ministry will impose a so-called “hot money” tax to curb foreign capital inflows, Lee said that the ministry respected the central bank’s monetary measures.
“The ‘hot money’ tax is not yet a policy, and the ministry still doesn’t know much about it. But as long as the purpose is correct and has a legal base, the ministry would look forward to it,” Lee said.
The central bank issued a statement on Tuesday that highlighted comments about capital controls from international agencies and famous economists in the face of continued foreign capital inflows.
Deputy Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday that imposing financial transaction taxes would be too slow a step to use to stem foreign capital inflows because a law regulating such a tax would have to be enacted first.
Chang would not comment when asked if the ministry would follow Brazil in levying taxes on foreign capital investment, but said that it was too early to talk about the tax implementation.
“Financial and administrative measures should be adopted instead,” he said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
RSS