INVESTMENT
FSC warns over broker app
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said that Tiger Brokers (老虎證券), a Chinese app-based brokerage, has made its way to Taiwan. The New Zealand-registered app offers investments in Hong Kong and US stocks, as well as China’s A-shares with a quick online account setup process. It also offers sub-brokerage fees for overseas equities market orders at less than 10 percent of the industry average. However, the service has not been approved in Taiwan, FSC chairman Lee Ruey-tsang (李瑞倉) told lawmakers at a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The commission is gathering evidence to support action over possible illegal solicitation of customers, Lee said.
STOCKS
Credit Suisse head probed
A senior executive at the Taiwan branch of Credit Suisse Group AG is under investigation for suspected insider trading. Taiwan branch president Elsa Chiu (邱慧平) is suspected of illegal trading related to the purchase of Hermes Microvision Inc (HMI, 漢微科) by the Netherlands’ ASML Holding NV, for which Credit Suisse acted as an adviser, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Credit Suisse declined to provide immediate comment and did not say whether Chiu would be removed from her post. Chiu allegedly traded Hermes shares through shell family accounts from May 24 to June 15 last year, reaping an estimated NT$21 million (US$680,382) in illegal profits. Chiu was released on bail on Monday evening and had her travel rights restricted.
AUTOMOBILES
Hotai launches C-HR
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday launched its Toyota C-HR, a subcompact crossover SUV priced between NT$899,000 and NT$1.079 million. The company, which has set an annual target to sell 140,000 vehicles, aims to sell 2,000 units of the new model this year, Hotai president Justin Su (蘇純興) said. Hotai, the nation’s largest car distributor, is to introduce luxury sports coupe Lexus LC in the second quarter and the Lexus LS in the fourth quarter.
STOCKS
TAIEX closes higher
The TAIEX closed up 15.38 points, or 0.16 percent, at 9,753.45, after moving between 9,773.49 and 9,712.5 on turnover of NT$79.668 billion yesterday. Following a lackluster performance on Wall Street, the local bourse dipped before noon, but recovered in the final 90 minutes of trading, led by large-cap electronics and financial stocks, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market. Old-economy sector stocks generally performed poorly, with the sub-indices for the cement, food, plastics and chemical, paper and pulp, and construction sectors closing lower.
TEXTILES
Eclat reports sales slump
Eclat Textile Co (儒鴻) yesterday said that sales last month declined 26.5 percent from a month earlier and 21.3 percent annually to NT$1.43 billion, marking the steepest monthly drop in the company’s history. Eclat attributed the slide to falling order volumes from international apparel brands, which amplified the decline when compared with growth in the same period a year earlier. The company said that it gave its employees additional days off during the Lunar New Year holiday this year and that the lower number of working days affected sales.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
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