EQUITIES
US rally lifts TAIEX 1.41%
The TAIEX yesterday got a boost from an overnight rally on Wall Street, closing more than 1.4 percent higher amid more signals that the US Federal Reserve might ease off on its interest rate hikes. The bellwether electronics sector attracted most of the attention and led gains throughout the session, but buying was uneven and only focused on semiconductor stocks. Old economy and financial stocks were mixed, while the biotech sector, which had lent some support to the broader market in the past few sessions, also saw momentum decline due to the flow of funds to tech stocks. The TAIEX closed up 217.26 points, or 1.41 percent, at 15,618.17. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$225.659 billion (US$7.51 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$14.16 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
LABOR
Furlough numbers drop
The number of workers on unpaid leave programs fell by 98 to 15,092 from Wednesday last week to Tuesday, while the export-oriented manufacturing sector is still under pressure due to weakening global demand, the Ministry of Labor reported yesterday. During the period, 120 workers at a machine tool company were placed on furlough, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said. Other similar businesses were also negotiating with their employees over unpaid leave, Huang said, adding that the number of furloughed workers in the sector is expected to increase in the near future. The long-term outlook for the industry remains unclear and companies can only adjust their workforce based on the number of orders received, Huang said.
AIRLINES
Tigerair listing progresses
The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s securities listing review committee has approved Tigerair Taiwan Ltd’s (台灣虎航) initial application to be listed on the Taiwan Innovation Board, the exchange said in a statement yesterday. The low-cost carrier, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), has paid-in capital of NT$4 billion. It reported pretax losses per share of NT$6.15 in the first three quarters of last year, after registering losses of NT$7.19 per share in 2021 and NT$6.45 per share in 2020, the exchange said. The airline, headquartered in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園), operates a fleet of 15 aircraft, mainly offering flights to Japan, South Korea, Macau, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. It currently trades its shares on the exchange’s Emerging Stock Board, where they closed 2.26 percent higher yesterday at NT$34.8, having risen 12.6 percent since the beginning of this year.
SHIPPING
T3EX revenue plunges
Freight forwarder T3EX Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際) yesterday reported that its consolidated revenue for last month declined 70.3 percent year-on-year to NT$1.19 billion due to weakening demand and the effects of the Lunar New Year holiday across Asia. For this quarter, the overall freight market is facing pressure caused by US-China trade tensions and sticky inflation worldwide, which has undercut consumer demand and created warehouse stockpiling, T3EX said. However, with the lifting of China’s “zero COVID” policy, consumer demand is expected to grow, which would help boost the supply chain and drive the global economy in the second half of the year, increasing demand for international transportation, it said.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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