Equities
Foreigners sell NT$43.89bn
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$43.89 billion (US$1.36 billion) of local shares after selling a net NT$50.3 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$1.34 trillion of local shares since the beginning of the year, it said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were Innolux Corp (群創), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空). As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$15.55 trillion, or 38.89 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
Banking
Money supply increases
Last month’s M1B — a measure of the money in circulation — grew 6.58 percent year-on-year, down from 7.55 percent in August largely due to slower growth in passbook savings deposits, the central bank said yesterday. M2 — which includes M1B, time deposits, mutual funds and foreign currency deposits — saw annual growth decrease to 6.83 percent from 6.93 percent in August due to net foreign capital outflows, it said. For the first nine months of the year, the average annual growth rate of M1B was 8.93 percent, compared with 9.24 percent in the first eight months, while that of M2 was 7.56 percent, down from 7.66 percent for the eight-month period, the central bank said.
Insurance
Agency notes Cathay plan
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) yesterday said that Cathay Financial Holding Co’s (國泰金控) plan to issue up to 1.5 billion new common shares could beef up the capital strength of its insurance arms — Cathay Life Insurance (國泰人壽) and Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰世紀產險) — but would only slightly boost the group’s capitalization. Taiwan Ratings, a local arm of S&P Global Ratings, said in a statement that the total value of the proceeds from the capital plan announced on Thursday last week would be subject to the final pricing of the issuance. Proceeds to be injected into Cathay Life are estimated to only account for about 3 percent of the insurer’s total adjusted capital as of June 30, therefore it would not affect its ratings or outlook on the insurer, Taiwan Ratings said.
Hospitality
Insurer takes hotel stake
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) has acquired a 99 percent stake in the Wen Wan Resort Sun Moon Lake (日月行館) for NT$780 million, as the insurer aims to better use its idle cash. The deal is to be carried out in two phases, but still needs approval from insurance regulators and the Nantou County Government as the luxury resort hotel is a build-operate-transfer project, the insurer said on Tuesday last week. Taiwan Life, a subsidiary of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), would look for hospitality operators to manage the property of 92 guest rooms, Taiwan Life said. The Kaohsiung-based Grand Hi-Lai Hotel (漢來大飯店) is reportedly the front-runner to win the management contract, as the luxury hotel is seeking to expand its business to take advantage of Taiwan’s border reopening, Chinese-language media reported.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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