INVESTMENT
Foreigners net sellers
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$18.39 billion (US$573.2 million) of local shares after selling a net NT$10.39 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$1.36 trillion of local shares since the beginning of the year, it said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were Innolux Corp (群創), SinoPac Holdings Co (永豐金控) and Career Technology Co (嘉聯益). As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$15.61 trillion, or 38.44 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Zhen Ding revenue up 29%
Zhen Ding Technology Holding Ltd (臻鼎), the nation’s leading printed circuit board (PCB) supplier, yesterday posted revenue of NT$21.19 billion for last month, up 29.86 percent year-on-year and the highest monthly sales in the company’s history, thanks to handset launches by a major customer. It brought the company’s cumulative revenue in the first 10 months of this year to NT$139.64 billion, up 21.54 percent year-on-year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) yesterday forecast Zhen Ding’s PCB shipments for handsets and laptops to be higher this quarter than last quarter, adding that its handset PCB shipments for a major US brand would peak this month, after which shipments would fall sequentially. Average selling prices of the company’s products are predicted to drop by 2 to 5 percent this quarter from last quarter after the peak of mass production ends, Yuanta said.
INVESTMENT
Program supports SMEs
The Executive Yuan has approved a program worth billions of New Taiwan dollars designed to improve the competitiveness of Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on four key areas, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said on Thursday after the weekly Cabinet meeting. The NT$95 billion program, which runs from this year through 2026, would receive funding from government agencies, Lo said. It also seeks to foster world-class businesses by improving the competitiveness of SMEs in the areas of zero emissions, digital transformation, value-added innovation and co-prosperity, he added.
INSURANCE
Regulator approves funds
Taiwan’s non-life insurance companies are expected to raise nearly NT$100 billion in total capital by the end of the year as COVID-19 insurance claims continue to rise and some insurers are planning to conduct more capital injection to improve their financial state, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Thursday. Six non-life insurers — Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰世紀產險), CTBC Insurance Co (中國信託產險), Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險), Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Co (新安東京海上產險), Hotai Insurance Co (和泰產險) and Chung Kuo Insurance Co (兆豐產險) — have obtained regulatory approval to raise combined capital of NT$70.7 billion, the commission said. Cathay Century Insurance and Tokio Marine Newa Insurance are planning to conduct second capital increases of NT$10 billion and of NT$7.5 billion respectively, the commission said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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