EQUITIES
TAIEX rallies despite war
The TAIEX yesterday made a significant technical comeback after heavy losses last week triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bargain hunters could be found across the board, with the electronics sector — which had been hard hit — in focus. Buying also rotated to raw material stocks on the back of rising product prices, as well as shipping stocks due to hopes of high cash dividends, dealers said. However, the TAIEX failed to reach 18,000 during the session, as high technical hurdles remained above that level, the dealers added. The TAIEX closed up 246.07 points, or 1.39 percent, at 17,898.25. Turnover totaled NT$357.919 billion (US$12.77 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$6.33 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
EQUITIES
Foreign buyers offload tech
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$166.54 billion of local shares after selling NT$6.31 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$195.02 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), while the top three bought were Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Tatung Co (大同) and Macronix International Co (旺宏), the exchange said. The market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$23.38 trillion, or 42.74 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Inergy rises 3% on debut
Shares in Inergy Technology Inc (廣閎科技), a fabless IC design firm that provides green energy solutions, yesterday rose 3.02 percent on the firm’s Taipei Exchange trading debut, following a well-received share sale last month. The shares opened at NT$122.5 and rose as high as NT$129.5 in the morning session before paring gains to close the day at NT$119.5, which was 3.02 percent higher than the initial offering price of NT$116 per share. Inergy was established in 2007 and is based in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北). It offers integrated power components that are optimized for system applications, as well as integrated power modules for motor drives and hall sensors. It reported net profit of NT$74.093 million in the first three quarters of last year, down from NT$17.613 million a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$1.82. Revenue last year rose 40.9 percent to NT$1.212 billion from NT$860.44 million in 2020.
INVESTMENTS
Scams rose 72% in 2021
The number of investment scams last year rose 72 percent annually to 4,904 cases, with total financial losses doubling to NT$2.08 billion, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Thursday last week, citing data compiled by the National Policy Agency (NPA). The figure accounted for 19.7 percent of total scams that the Criminal Investigation Bureau addressed last year, second only to online shopping scams at 22.8 percent, NPA data showed. The bureau has categorized three main types of investment scams: online gambling, cryptocurrency investments and overseas investments, Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) said. Firms attending a financial crime seminar on Wednesday in Taipei had proposed that the NPA and the commission should have a platform to exchange information and crack down on such scams.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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