EQUITIES
TAIEX moves lower
The TAIEX moved lower yesterday, falling by more than 100 points as the bellwether electronics sector took a hit from losses incurred by tech stocks listed on US markets overnight. However, with the market awash in liquidity, buying rotated to old-economy stocks in the shipping and cement industries as investors tended to park their money in safe havens outside the tech sector, dealers said. The TAIEX closed down 121.76 points, or 0.70 percent, at 17,202.11. Turnover totaled NT$439.833 billion (US$15.62 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$20.26 billion of shares on the main board yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
BROKERAGES
Combined profit surges
Securities firms in Taiwan reported combined net profit of NT$11.47 billion for last month, up 52.78 percent from the previous month, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said in a statement yesterday. Accumulated net profit among securities firms in the first three months of this year totaled NT$26.85 billion, up NT$31.45 billion from the same period last year, the exchange said. As total TWSE trading value grew 56.29 percent month-on-month to NT$7.06 trillion last month, firms reported an increase in brokerage fee income than the previous month, it said. However, net profit from trading decreased 4.88 percent monthly, while net underwriting income increased by 67.12 percent, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Ene to cancel shares
IC designer Ene Technology Inc (迅杰科技) yesterday announced a capital reduction scheme in which it would cancel 51.55 percent of its shares in circulation to pare accumulated losses. The scheme would reduce its capitalization to NT$363 million from NT$386.5 billion, the company said in a regulatory filing. The company said it expects net value per share to recover to NT$12 following the capital reduction. The company’s board of directors approved a private placement plan to woo potential strategic investors and boost working capital. The company proposed issuing up to 8 million new shares in the private placement, the filing said.
TECHNOLOGY
Naver eyes global growth
Naver Corp wants to boost its international presence after its US debut last month. To help with that, the South Korean company is considering more US dollar bond sales and is eyeing a possible initial public offering in the US for a unit, Naver chief financial officer Park Sang-jin said in an interview. “To grow, it’s inevitable that we go global,” said Park, who has been with the firm since it was founded in 1999. Naver is looking for more opportunities in Japan, where its Line messaging service is popular, as well as Taiwan, Europe and Southeast Asia, he said.
ELECTRONICS
Purple iPhone sales unveiled
Preorders for purple iPhone 12s and iPhone 12 minis are scheduled to start tomorrow in Taiwan, with the country selected as one of the first markets for sales, Apple Inc said on its Web site. The US electronics giant said that preorders for the “stunning” purple devices would start at 8pm and the new phones would go on sale on Friday next week at a starting price of NT$23,900. The announcement came after Apple unveiled the new color of its latest iPhones overnight.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
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