The nation’s financial holding companies reported record-high unrealized losses of NT$873.2 billion (US$28.66 billion) during the second quarter, as the value of their investment assets plunged amid market routs sparked by the US Federal Reserve’s cycle of rate hikes, data from the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) showed on Monday.
Combined unrealized losses in the first half of this year came in at NT$827.76 billion — NT$661 billion from overseas investments and NT$166 billion from domestic investments, the data showed.
The majority of their losses came from investments in the US, which totaled NT$256.5 billion at the end of June, compared with unrealized losses of NT$38.4 billion at the end of March, the data showed.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
Financial holding companies’ investments in the US increased by NT$503 billion in the second quarter, mainly because local life insurance companies bought more US fixed-income products, the data showed.
China was the second biggest source of losses, with the financial holding firms reporting aggregate losses of NT$53.1 billion, followed by France with losses of NT$31.7 billion, Russia with losses of NT$31.4 billion and Mexico with losses of NT$27.5 billion, the data showed.
The companies also boosted their investments slightly in France, Russia and Mexico, but cut their investments in China by NT$88 billion during the second quarter, the data showed.
Overall, financial holding companies’ overseas exposure totaled NT$23.95 trillion at the end of June, up about 3 percent from the previous quarter, the data showed.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
Asian e-commerce giant Shein’s (希音) decision to set up shop in a historic Parisian department store has ruffled feathers in the fashion capital. Anger has been boiling since Shein announced last week that it would open its first permanent physical store next month at BHV Marais, an iconic building that has stood across from Paris City Hall since 1856. The move prompted some French brands to announce they would leave BHV Marais, but the department store had already been losing tenants over late payments. Aime cosmetics line cofounder Mathilde Lacombe, whose brand was among those that decided to leave following
RSS