STOCK MARKETS
Currency losses rise in Q1
The nation’s listed companies, excluding financial holding firms, reported NT$47.8 billion (US$1.59 billion) in foreign-exchange losses for the first quarter of this year due to the New Taiwan dollar’s strong appreciation, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday. The figure is much greater than the NT$15.1 billion in foreign-exchange losses the firms reported for the whole of last year, the commission said. However, firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, excluding financial holding companies, reported an annual increase of 25.68 percent to NT$442 billion in pretax profit for the first quarter, the commission said, adding that firms listed on the Taipei Exchange reported a 20.77 percent decline to NT$20.6 billion in pretax profit.
MACROECONOMICS
M1B supply growth slows
The nation’s M1B supply, a narrow measure of the amount of money in circulation, last month grew 4.21 percent year-on-year, while M2 — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds — advanced by 3.63 percent annually, the central bank said in a statement on Wednesday. For the first four months of this year, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 4.97 percent and 3.64 percent respectively, the central bank said. As M1B supply growth slowed and its difference from M2 growth narrowed last month, coupled with a decline in outstanding cash deposits in stock-designated and foreign institutional investor accounts, analysts said that retail and foreign institutional investors likely increased their participation.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Tien Liang forecasts losses
Tien Liang Biotech Co Ltd (天良生物科技) expects to incur losses of NT$17.97 million after health authorities ordered a mandatory product recall, the company said yesterday in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The firm was found to have tampered with the expiration dates of a batch of its cold and flu relief medicine. Authorities found 1,524 bottles with tampered labels and confiscated more than 160,000 bottles of the product. The company could face a fine of NT$100 million for violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法).
ELECTRONICS
CHPT to increase spending
Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co’s (CHPT, 中華精測) board has approved a NT$1.05 billion increase in capital spending this year to develop and produce a special-purpose printed circuit board, the firm said yesterday in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. As the new operation deviates from its core business — high-performance testing solutions for semiconductors — the firm said it would allocate NT$500 million of the funds toward research and development of new production lines during the initial stage, adding that it expects the new operation to begin contributing revenue in 2020.
FINANCE
Yuanta profit falls 8%
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) yesterday released its audited earnings results for last quarter, reporting net income of NT$3.296 billion on revenue of NT$17.55 billion. Net income attributable to the parent company was NT$3.05 billion in the January-to-March quarter, down 8 percent year-on-year, or earnings per share of NT$0.26, the company said in a statement. The company is in the process of transforming into a wealth management-focused institution, and its securities brokerage unit is to benefit from recovering stock market turnover, analysts said.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
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