China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) yesterday saw its share prices soar to the highest level since March 24 after the stock was added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Taiwan Index category.
The inclusion of the Taipei-based insurer is expected to take effect after the stock market closes on May 26, MSCI said in a statement on Tuesday.
In its semi-annual index review, the leading index compiler also included Ruentex Development Co (潤泰創新國際) in the MSCI Taiwan Index category, while removing Formosa Sumco Technology Corp (台塑勝高科技) from the list.
Included in MSCI’s latest index review results is an increase in Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI Global Emerging Market Index and a cut in the weighting of local shares in the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index. That was similar to the previous adjustments made in MSCI’s February review.
However, the New York-based company this time did not mention any reclassification of Taiwan’s market status to a developed market from an emerging market, a move that is expected to draw more investors into the nation’s stock market. In June last year, MSCI said it would place Taiwan and South Korea under review for a possible upgrade, while it upgraded Israel to developed market status.
Under the latest adjustments, the weighting of Taiwanese shares in the MSCI Global Emerging Market Index was upgraded by 0.21 percentage points to 11.13 percent, while its weighting in the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index was downgraded by 0.23 percentage points to 19.04 percent.
“MSCI’s semi-annual adjustment set the pace for today’s market,” SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) said in a note to investors yesterday.
However, the weighting changes did not stop share sell-offs by three major institutional investors yesterday, with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$3.02 billion (US$95.12 million) worth of local shares, followed by domestic proprietary traders’ net selling of NT$760 million and domestic investment trust companies’ off-loading of NT$520 million in shares, SinoPac said.
China Life, which acquired the assets and liabilities of a local insurance arm of Prudential Plc last year, has seen its shares increase 4.63 percent so far this year. The stock rose 5.69 percent to close at NT$26 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Shares of local property developer Ruentex Development, which has risen 15.26 percent since the beginning of the year, were up 3.15 percent yesterday to NT$49.10, while those of Formosa Sumco, which specializes in testing and manufacturing silicon chip materials, dropped 3.36 percent to NT$77.7.
Also, the index compiler said it included 105 stocks into MSCI China A Indices in the latest adjustments, with the three largest additions being Haitong Securities Co (海通證券), China Everbright Securities (中國光大控股) and Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology (金風科技).
Teva Pharmaceutical of Israel, CIT Group of the US and Red Back Mining from Canada are the largest among the 42 additions to MSCI World Index this time, while Gudang Garam of Indonesia, Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing (理文造紙) of China and Rural Electrification Co of India represent the three largest additions to the MSCI Emerging Market Index.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since