TAIEX
Foreigner stock buys surge
Foreign investors last week bought a net NT$7.73 billion (US$265.23 million) of local shares after buying a net NT$2.18 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$773.03 billion of local shares since the beginning of the year, the exchange said. The top three shares bought by foreign investors last week were Innolux Corp (群創光電), Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), while the top three shares sold by foreign investors were Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), it said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$20.56 trillion, or 40.73 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
BIOMEDICAL
Local drug gets foreign deal
PharmaEssentia Corp’s (藥華醫藥) board of directors on Sunday gave approval to a non-binding term sheet to authorize a foreign company to market PharmaEssentia’s blood cancer drug Ropeg in the Latin American market. PharmaEssentia would disclose the name of the firm and the income generated from the deal when a formal agreement is signed, it said in a regulatory filing. The number of people with the rare type of blood cancer, polycythemia vera, is estimated to be more than 100,000 in Latin America, but as the area has a comparatively low insurance coverage rate, the companies plan to target specific groups initially. PharmaEssentia has obtained marketing approval for Ropeg in Taiwan, South Korea, the EU and the US. It holds an upbeat outlook for the second quarter given robust sales of Ropeg in the US.
ENERGY
Taipei signs Somaliland deal
Taiwan and Somaliland signed an agreement on energy and mineral resources cooperation last week that Taiwan’s office in Somaliland said provides a legal foundation for joint resource exploration, drilling activities and other initiatives. A task force is to facilitate information sharing, exploration and drilling, training and capacity building, Taiwan’s representative office in Hargeisa said on social media. CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) in December last year signed a farm-out agreement with UK-based Genel Energy PLC to acquire 49 percent of the rights to explore hydrocarbon resources in the SL10B/13 mining area, and the deal was later approved by the Somaliland government. Taiwan Representative to Somaliland Allen Lou (羅震華) said the first exploration well is to be drilled next year.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
XREX enters European market
XREX Inc (鏈科), a Taipei provider of blockchain cross-border payment solutions, obtained approval from Lithuania’s regulator to provide cryptocurrency services in the country, enabling it to set foot in the European market. The company said it would mainly target firms based in Lithuania, and aims to serve as a bridge to link firms in advanced economies and those in emerging markets. As a registered cryptoasset service provider in Lithuania, XREX would be able to help customers exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, provide a virtual wallet service and act as an online payment guarantor similar to BitCheck, it said. Established in 2018, the company has received regulatory approvals from Estonia, Canada and the US over the past few months, while it is applying to enter the Singaporean market, it said.
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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