MARKETS
Foreign sell-off tapers
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$63.44 billion (US$2.25 billion) of local shares after selling NT$166.54 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$258.46 billion of local shares from the beginning of the year, it said. Last week, the top three shares foreign investors sold were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), while the top three were CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the exchange said. The market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$23.23 trillion, or 42.28 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
MEMORYCHIPS
Macronix posts strong gains
Memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$3.62 billion for last month, up 20.27 percent from a year ago, on strong market demand. While last month’s figure fell 2.54 percent from January, it was still the highest February level in the company’s history, the company said. Cumulative revenue in the first two months of the year totaled NT$7.34 billion, up 21.97 percent from NT$6.02 billion in the same period last year. Macronix is a leading producer of nonvolatile memory products such as ROM and NOR flash, which are used in a variety of electronic devices. The company said it remains positive about this year’s outlook, as the supply of NOR flash memorychips has become tight and the price should continue to rise.
COMPUTERS
Advantech ratio stays high
Industrial computer manufacturer Advantech Co (研華) yesterday said its book-to-bill ratio remained high at 1.31 percent last month, slightly lower than 1.38 percent in the January-February period, thanks to improving product sales amid a global demand recovery. Consolidated sales were NT$4.67 billion last month, up 29.13 percent from NT$3.62 billion a year ago. Accumulated sales in the first two months totaled NT$10.06 billion, up 23.71 percent year-on-year, the company said in a statement. By geographic region, North America and Europe registered sales growth of 33 percent and 39 percent respectively, while emerging markets registered 44 percent during the two-month period, it said. While the company’s embedded Internet of Things (IoT) group, applied computing group and service-IoT group reported strong sales in the first two months, the cloud-IoT group saw sales slightly decline due to component shortages and a high comparison base last year, it added.
COSMETICS
Chlitina reports flat revenue
Chlitina Holding Ltd (麗豐), which makes and sells cosmetics and skincare products, yesterday said revenue last month was flat from a year ago at NT$266.33 million, as the Lunar New Year holiday cut the number of working days, while sales at its beauty salon franchises in China’s Guangdong Province and Shanghai city were affected by COVID-19 flare-ups. Cumulative revenue in the first two months of this year fell 9.97 percent to NT$623.31 million from a year earlier, the company said. Worldwide, the company operates 4,994 franchisees, including 4,753 in China, the company said. With marketing campaigns and promotional activities beginning this month, the company said it expects growth momentum to emerge in the first half of this year.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
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