EQUITIES
Traders wary before election
Shares in Taiwan yesterday closed below 9,700 points after trading within a narrow range as investors appeared cautious ahead of today’s nine-in-one local elections, dealers said. Many investors stayed on the sidelines, resulting in the lowest turnover for a single day this year, at a time when most large-cap stocks in the electronics and non-technology sectors remained in the doldrums, they said. The TAIEX closed down 47.41 points, or 0.49 percent, at 9,667.30, after moving between 9,654.91 and 9,738.80. Turnover was NT$76.599 billion (US$2.48 billion). Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$82 million in shares, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said.
ECONOMY
Deposits boost M1B, M2
Last month’s M1B — a measure of the money in circulation — grew 5.31 percent year-on-year from 5.22 percent in September, while M2 — which includes the M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — saw annual growth increase to 3.39 percent from 3.34 percent, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The rates were due to growth in passbook savings deposits, the bank said. For the first 10 months, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 5.3 percent and 3.6 percent respectively, it said.
FINANCE
Interest rates fall slightly
The nation’s five major state-run banks last month saw their average lending interest rates fall to 1.36 percent, down 0.014 percentage points from 1.374 percent in September. The five lenders are Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行). The decline reflects falling interest rates applying to loans intended for companies’ working capital and capital expenditure, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday. Excluding government loans, interest rates averaged 1.418 percent, up 0.021 percentage points from 1.397 percent a month earlier, the central bank said.
EQUITIES
TWSE to close 11 days
The TWSE is to close for 11 days during the Lunar New Year holiday next year, it announced on Tuesday. The last trading day is to be on Jan. 30, and it is to reopen on Feb. 11, the TWSE said. Based on statistics from 2000, the only years the exchange had an 11-day holiday were in 2002, 2007 and 2013. According to a calendar released by the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration, the Lunar New Year holiday period is to be from Feb. 2 to Feb. 10.
SEMICONDUCTORS
N America billings up yearly
North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment last month reported worldwide billings of US$2.06 billion, trade group SEMI said in a statement on Tuesday. The three-month average of worldwide billings was 0.9 percent lower than September’s US$2.07 billion, but up 2 percent from US$2.02 billion a year earlier, SEMI said. “October billings of North American equipment suppliers reflect near-term weakening of demand for PCs, mobile phones and servers,” SEMI CEO Ajit Manocha said in a statement. “Additionally, memory manufacturers have pulled back investments in response to recent softening of memory pricing.”
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
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