Taiwan’s 10-year bonds fell the most in six weeks after a government debt sale missed its target on signs insurers are favoring higher-yielding foreign-currency notes.
The Ministry of Finance yesterday sold NT$31.8 billion (US$1 billion) of securities due 2035, less than its NT$40 billion goal, the central bank said in a statement.
Local insurers bought 18.9 percent of the bonds, compared with an average of 27.6 percent for 20-year debt sales over the past five years. Firms including HSBC Holdings PLC and PCCW Ltd (電訊盈科) have sold US$2.5 billion of foreign-currency paper in Taiwan this year following a record US$24 billion of issuance last year.
“Demand at the 20-year bond auction was poor partly because of the substitution effect from international bonds,” said Daniel Wu, a fixed-income trader at EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) in Taipei. “It’s also partly because insurers may be strategically waiting for other long-tenor and international bonds with better yields.”
Ten-year sovereign bonds declined after the auction, pushing the yield up 5 basis points to 1.548 percent at the close, GRETAI Securities Market prices show. That is the biggest increase since Dec. 8.
The government sells less debt than planned when the highest bid exceeds a cutoff yield. Investors bid for 1.03 times the amount of bonds offered, the lowest ratio in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 2000.
The notes were sold at 2.08 percent, exceeding the 2.07 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 11 fixed-income traders. Taiwan is planning to sell NT$40 billion of 30-year sovereign securities next month.
Companies have flocked to Taiwan to issue global bonds since local regulators excluded them from insurers’ overseas investment quotas in May. PCCW paid a yield of 4.6 percent when it sold 15-year dollar notes this month.
In the forex market, the New Taiwan dollar halted four days of gains to weaken 0.5 percent, the most in two weeks, to NT$31.696 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
One-month non-deliverable forwards fell 0.7 percent to NT$31.681, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 0.2 percent on speculation the European Central Bank would expand quantitative easing when it meets tomorrow, while the US Federal Reserve prepares to tighten this year.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS