EQUITIES
Foreigners buy more shares
Foreign investors last week bought a net NT$63.46 billion (US$2.23 billion) of shares after they bought a net NT$44.21 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares bought by foreign investors were Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), while the top three sold were Evergreen Marine Corp (Taiwan) Ltd (長榮海運), Pegatron Corp (和碩) and Li Peng Enterprise Co (力鵬), the exchange said in a statement. As of Friday last week, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$21.7 trillion, or 46.12 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
CHIPMAKERS
UMC warns of delays
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said it and a small number of customers could encounter adjustments to wafer shipment dates, after an abnormality on Saturday caused a power outage in its gas insulated switchgear equipment that led to a short-term electrical interruption at two of its fabs in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區). In a statement posted on the company’s Web site on Sunday, UMC said that it “will closely monitor the situation and update the latest shipment status to customers accordingly if this happens.”
AUTO PARTS
Laster posts record revenue
Automotive lighting module maker Laster Tech Co Ltd (麗清科技) yesterday posted revenue of NT$509 million for last month, the highest in the company’s history on the back of strong seasonal demand and a continuing recovery in China. Consolidated revenue was up 6.83 percent month-on-month and 19.95 percent year-on-year. For the whole of last year, cumulative revenue increased 5.61 percent to NT$4.35 billion, the company said in a statement. Laster attributed the annual growth to rising shipments of LED lighting modules and headlight control modules, as major auto brands move toward new energy vehicles, electric vehicles and smart technologies.
RESTAURANTS
Tai Tong revenue surges
Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (瓦城泰統集團) yesterday posted revenue of NT$415.38 million for last month, up 11.8 percent month-on-month and 1.36 percent year-on-year. The company, which operates Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理) and five other restaurant chains, said that last month’s revenue boosted its fourth-quarter to a record-high of NT$1.2 billion, up 4.4 percent year-on-year. Cumulative revenue for last year fell 5.89 percent year-on-year to NT$4.61 billion due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic early last year, it said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY
CloudMile raises US$10m
CloudMile Ltd (萬里雲互聯), a start-up focused on artificial intelligence and cloud services, yesterday announced that it had raised US$10 million in B round funding, which would allow the four-year-old firm to strengthen its research and development, recruit international talent and expand in overseas markets, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The latest funding round was spearheaded by Substance Capital, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm. CDIB Capital Group (中華開發資本), Black Marble Capital Management Co (萬豐資本), and an investment fund set up by Yuanta Asia Investment Ltd (元大亞洲投資), the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) and the Institute for Information Industry (資策會) also participated in the funding round, CloudMile said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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