EQUITIES
Foreigners sell more shares
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$1.9 billion (US$63.7 million) of local shares after selling a net NT$40.07 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$954.98 billion of local shares since the beginning of the year, the exchange said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were Innolux Corp (群創光電), China Steel Corp (中鋼) and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), AUO Corp (友達光電) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the exchange said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$18.07 trillion, or 40.11 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
ELECTRONICS
Ennoconn revenue soars
Ennoconn Corp (樺漢科技), an industrial computer subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday said its revenue for last month, the second quarter and the first six months of the year all were the highest levels for the same period in the company’s history. Consolidated revenue was NT$10.39 billion last month, up 23.3 percent month-on-month and 22.9 percent year-on-year, Ennoconn said in a statement. Second-quarter revenue grew 11.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 18.3 percent year-on-year to NT$26.98 billion, driven by the company’s design and systems integration segments, it said. Coupled with stable growth in its brand business, revenue in the first half of the year rose 19.1 percent year-on-year to NT$51.2 billion, the company said, adding that it is optimistic about its outlook for the second half.
BANKING
Multilingual ATM target set
The Financial Supervisory Commission has set a target for local banks to raise the number of multilingual ATMs to account for 50 percent of their total machines by the end of this year. The commission has also demanded that banks increase their number of bilingual branches in the domestic market, it said on Thursday last week. While the commission did not set a specific target on the number of bilingual branches, it expects the number to grow from 479 currently, it said. The anticipated increases in the number of multilingual ATMs and bilingual branches are part of the commission’s efforts to promote more inclusive financial services, which also include the setup of digital savings accounts and the use of mobile payments, it added.
PROPERTY
Pan told to go bankrupt
Distressed property tycoon Pan Sutong (潘蘇通) has been told by the Hong Kong High Court to go bankrupt, marking another blow to the former billionaire. The court ordered Pan to unwind his holding company, Silver Starlight Ltd, after he and the firm failed to pay creditors including China Citic Bank Corp (中信銀行) HK$8 billion (US$1 billion at the current exchange rate) that was due in 2019, a court filing showed on Friday. A representative for Pan yesterday said that he is appealing the order. Once among Asia’s wealthiest people, Pan fell from grace after shares of Goldin Financial Holdings Ltd (高銀金融) plunged amid a property collapse, erasing most of his US$27 billion fortune. Last month, he resigned as chairman and executive director of Goldin Financial after the sale of the firm’s flagship skyscraper collapsed.
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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