TAIEX closes slightly lower
Taiwan’s share prices closed lower yesterday with the TAIEX falling 5.74 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 7,602.7.
The local bourse opened at 7,663.34 and fluctuated between 7,596.21 and 7,674.52. Market turnover totaled NT$76.15 billion (US$2.4 billion).
Losers outnumbered gainers 1,856 to 995, with 360 remaining unchanged.
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net sellers of NT$3.02 billion in shares.
Catcher to sell GDRs
Catcher Technology Co (可成 企業), a supplier of computer casings to customers including Apple Inc, said its board approved plans to sell global depositary receipts backed by up to 66 million new shares, according to a filing to the stock exchange yesterday.
The company said in a separate filing that its board approved to distribute NT$2 in cash dividends per share to shareholders. The Tainan-based company is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting on June 25 to approve this dividend payout proposal, the filing said.
Tatung aims for more revenue
Local home appliances maker Tatung Co (大同) yesterday said it set a goal to grow revenues by 30 percent this year from last year, benefiting from growing demand for its products amid improving economy, according to a company statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Last year, Tatung made NT$118.73 billion in revenues. In the first four months of this year, Tatung increased revenues by 30.12 percent to NT$12.27 billion, from NT$9.43 billion a year ago.
Tatung also said in the statement that it has no substantial plan to seek strategic partners, dismissing local media’s report that the company was close to announcing such partners.
President top among Taiwanese
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), which runs 7-Eleven convenience stores throughout Taiwan, won the first prize in the annual Yahoo Emotive Brand Award, Yahoo Taiwan announced yesterday.
Electronic giant Sony and probiotic drink Yakult took second and third places in the competition.
The Emotive Brand Award was designed to demonstrate how consumers view product brands in the market, what their favorite brands are and how close they feel to these brands, Yahoo said.
State-owned postal service provider Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) took the top prize in the financial category, while local food firm Kuai Kuai Co (乖乖食品) won in the nostalgic brand category. Consumers in Taiwan have been buying its products for 40 years.
Japanese candy maker Morinaga and local perfume firm Ming Sing Chemical Co (明星化學) won the second and third prizes in the same category, respectively.
China ‘ripe’ for rate hike
A Chinese central bank adviser said conditions are ripe for China to hike its benchmark interest rate, state-run media reported yesterday.
The comments were published after official data showed China’s consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose a higher-than-expected 2.8 percent on year last month, outpacing the 2.4 percent jump in March.
Policymakers should focus on controlling excessive liquidity in the economy and managing inflation expectations in the coming months, the China Business News cited People’s Bank of China monetary committee adviser Li Daokui (李稻葵) as saying.
NT dollar edges down
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.064 to close at the day’s high of NT$31.893.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
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
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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