EQUITIES
TAIEX closes little changed
The TAIEX closed little changed yesterday after an early 100-point plunge triggered by a poor showing by US markets overnight amid fears over an outbreak of COVID-19. The weighted index closed 5.36 points, or 0.05 percent, higher at 11,540.23 on turnover of NT$153.815 billion (US$5.06 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$11.28 billion of shares after a net sale of NT$26.34 billion on Monday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. “It seemed that the market got solid technical support at the 120-day moving average of about 11,439 points,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said.
REAL ESTATE
Housing loans rise further
Housing loans and lending to the construction sector continued to increase last month, monthly data released by the central bank showed yesterday. Housing loans grew 6.16 percent year-on-year to NT$7.43 trillion, the bank’s tallies showed. The figure increased slightly by 0.18 percent from the previous month due to the effect of the Lunar New Year holiday, the bank said. Construction loans grew 12.75 percent year-on-year to NT$2.1 trillion last month. The number rose by just 0.48 percent from the previous month because of seasonal factors, the bank said.
INVESTMENTS
Foreign investments passed
The Investment Commission on Monday approved Samoa-registered Good Flavor Alpha Ltd’s application to invest NT$478 million to finance a Taiwanese enterprise making bread and other baked goods. It also approved a Hong Kong company’s plan to invest NT$360 million in a Taiwanese maker of computer and peripheral equipment and medical devices, as well as another Hong Kong firm’s investment of NT$224 million in a local chemical producer. In terms of outbound investment, Taichung-based Johnson Health Tech Co (喬山健康科技) received approval to invest ￥6.24 billion (US$56.4 million) to buy a 60 percent stake in Fuji Medical Instruments Manufacturing Co, the commission said.
FINANCE
SBI leads CoolBitX funding
Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings Inc is leading a group of investors participating in a Series B US$16.75 million funding round for CoolBitX (庫幣科技), a Taiwanese blockchain security company offering services to help crypto exchanges comply with more stringent international standards for collection of user information. Other participants in the fundraising include the National Development Fund, Japan’s Monex Group Inc and South Korean crypto exchange BitSonic, a CoolBitX press release said. SBI Holdings was among investors participating in the Series A US$13 million funding round in 2018, the company said.
PUBLISHING
‘Next Magazine’ closing
Taiwan’s version of the Chinese-language Next Magazine (壹週刊) is to cease online publication on Saturday, less than two years after closing its print edition and almost two decades after its launch. In a statement posted on its Web site last week, the publisher attributed the closure to a restructuring at its parent company, Hong Kong-based media conglomerate Next Digital Ltd (壹傳媒). The company said it would protect the rights of its employees, as well as subscribers, which would be given the choice of a cash refund or transferring their subscription to Taiwan’s Apple Daily Web site.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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