EQUITIES
Investors pocket profits
The TAIEX closed slightly lower yesterday after initial gains were erased amid lingering caution caused by the US Federal Reserve’s hawkish outlook. The bellwether electronics sector gave up an earlier upturn as fears of further volatility among tech stocks on the US markets prompted investors to lock in their profits. The TAIEX closed down 26.70 points, or 0.18 percent, at 15,069.19. Turnover totaled NT$178.284 billion (US$5.89 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$10.59 billion of shares on the main board after a net sell of NT$16.76 billion on Tuesday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
ELECTRONICS
Weak demand hits Innolux
Flat-panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) has encouraged employees to take an extra five days off over the Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day holidays, the company said in a statement yesterday. Innolux aims to reduce its factory utilization rate to as low as 50 percent during the second half of this year in response to weak customer demand, the company said. Production line employees are to work a flexible rotation scheme based on adjustments to the usage of the production line, it said. The company’s statement came after an employee wrote to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, accusing the company of forcing workers to take annual leave.
STEELMAKERS
CSC’s pre-tax income dives
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) said its pre-tax income plummeted 39 percent to NT$2.61 billion last month from NT$4.29 billion in June, due to a reduction in carbon steel sales and a lower gross margin. The Kaohsiung-based firm sold 683,834 tonnes of steel last month, down 15.26 percent from 806,975 tonnes in June, it said in a statement released on Tuesday. During the first seven months of this year, the steelmaker accumulated NT$31.51 billion in pre-tax income, down 29 percent from NT$44.29 billion during the same period last year. However, revenue rose 13 percent year-on-year from NT$255.15 billion to NT$288 billion during the January-to-July period, it said.
BROKERAGES
Firms’ net income up 74%
Securities firms in Taiwan reported combined net income of NT$5.202 billion last month, up 73.92 percent from June, as a decline in brokerage fee income was offset by increases in dealers’ trading income and underwriting income, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said on Monday. The exchange attributed the decline in fee income to a drop in securities transactions last month, when trading fell 4.96 percent month-on-month to NT$4.832 trillion. In the first seven months of this year, the accumulated net income of securities firms was NT$23.655 billion, down 65.37 percent from the same period last year.
BROKERAGES
China Merchants IPOs halted
Chinese bourses have stopped processing more than 20 initial public offering (IPO) plans sponsored by China Merchants Securities Co (招商證券) following an investigation into the broker, exchange disclosures showed. Since Friday last week, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange has suspended 15 IPO plans for its ChiNext board, while the Shanghai exchange has paused five IPO plans for its STAR Market. Three other IPOs targeting the Beijing Stock Exchange were also affected. The bourses attributed the halts to an investigation by authorities into China Merchants Securities’ poor due diligence and rule contraventions.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The US said it plans to help build a first-of-its-kind industrial hub in the Philippines to boost production of inputs crucial to US supply chains. The 4,000-acre hub is intended to be “a purpose-built platform for allied manufacturing” and “an investment acceleration hub where the specific industrial activities are shaped by market demand,” the US Department of State said on Thursday. The project — touted as an “economic security zone” — would be within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a flagship economic project backed by the US and Japan on the main Philippine island. The project was also described as “the first artificial intelligence
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