TAIEX gains 0.68 percent
The TAIEX closed up 0.68 percent yesterday as buying was triggered by a strong rebound on Wall Street overnight because of better-than-expected US manufacturing activity data last month, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 52.57 points to 7,720.82, after moving between 7,715.31 and 7,780.53, on turnover of NT$115.78 billion (US$3.62 billion).
The market opened up 1.24 percent in a knee-jerk reaction to Wall Street’s 2.2 percent rise and gains posted by other major markets in the region, but after the index moved closer to the nearest resistance at about 7,800, profit-taking emerged, dealers said.
A total of 2,378 stocks closed up and 1,302 down, with 310 remaining unchanged.
Bank posts NT$663m profit
Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) posted a net profit of NT$663 million last month, boosting its accumulated net income to NT$5.03 billion for the first eight months, the bank said yesterday in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. That translates into NT$0.93 earnings per share, the filing said.
The state-run bank had a net worth of NT$114.35 billion as of Tuesday. In addition, the lender said it would transfer 100 million shares it bought back from the market in 2008 to employees at the price of NT$18.98 per share.
Employees intent on purchasing may do so between Tuesday next week and Sept. 16, the filing said.
III to work with Indian center
The Taiwan-based Institute for Information Industry (III, 資策會) said on Wednesday that it would collaborate with India’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) to develop 4G broadband wireless technologies and products.
The III and CEWIT signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) focusing on R&D in Taipei on Wednesday, marking the first cooperation agreement between the institutes, the III said.
The deal aims to help Taiwanese manufacturers become core network equipment suppliers, it said.
The institutes will start with cooperation in developing 4G relay station technologies, hoping that new communication products enable Taiwan’s manufacturers — mostly focused on original equipment manufacturing businesses — to earn higher profit margins by making network equipment instead of customer premises equipment, the III said in a press release.
Over-the-counter sales up 42%
Combined revenue from over-the-counter (OTC) companies in Taiwan totaled NT$708.8 billion (US$22.1 billion) in the first half of this year, up 42 percent from the same period last year, according to a report released yesterday by the GRETAI Securities Market.
The companies posted a pre-tax profit of NT$59 billion in the first six months, which represents an increase of NT$84.7 billion from last year, when a pre-tax loss of NT$25.7 billion was recorded.
The largest growth was seen in the semiconductor, electronic parts and components, photonics, computer and peripheral equipment, and financial sectors.
During the same period, revenue of emerging companies totaled NT$290.4 billion, a rise of 58 percent year-on-year. The companies reported pre-tax profit of NT$26.4 billion, a major improvement from last year, which saw a pre-tax loss of NT$3.1 billion.
The best performers in terms of pre-tax profit were the semiconductor, photonics, electronic parts and components, and steel industries.
NT rises against US dollar
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar, up NT$0.035 to close at NT$32.040.
Turnover totaled US$487 million during the trading session.
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
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
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
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
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