EQUITIES
Foreigners net sellers
Foreign institutional investors last week sold a net NT$32.46 billion (US$1.06 million) of local shares, after selling a net NT$36.84 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), while the top three bought by foreign investors were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子) and Wistron Corp (緯創), the exchange said in a statement. As of Friday last week, foreign investors had bought NT$147.47 billion of local shares since the beginning of this year, while the market capitalization of the shares held by foreign investors was NT$19.66 trillion, or 40.61 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
CHIPMAKERS
IC exports fall again
The nation’s exports of integrated circuit chips to China and Hong Kong fell for a fourth month last month as Washington-Beijing tensions simmered and demand for electronics continued to drop off. Exports of ICs — which are pivotal components of electronic devices, computers and smartphones — to China and Hong Kong dropped 31.3 percent year-on-year, Ministry of Finance data showed. It was the worst decline since 2009, topping January’s 27.1 percent fall. China’s market share of Taiwanese IC exports plunged to the lowest level since February 2019, the data showed. The total amount of semiconductors Taiwan shipped worldwide last month declined 17.3 percent year-on-year.
ELECTRICITY
Individual meters touted
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) on Sunday said that tenants who share electricity meters might wish to consider requesting a change of that arrangement, given the impending increase in rates. However, the installation of an independent meter for each unit in a building would require permission from the landlord, who in turn would have to apply to Taipower for a change in wiring and the addition of separate meters, the state-run company said. Meanwhile, tenants whose power consumption exceeds 700 kilowatt-hours per month can opt for a plan known as time-of-use rates, under which they can ask to shift some of their recorded usage to a period when electricity rates are lower, the company said. Taipower on Friday last week announced increased rates for domestic and business users starting on Saturday next week, which would be a 3 percent increase for households if their monthly electricity consumption exceeds 700 kilowatt-hours and 10 percent if monthly electricity consumption is more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours, the company said.
LIFE INSURANCE
Firms report net loss
The nation’s six major life insurers continued to report a combined net loss last month for a fifth consecutive month, in light of significant foreign exchange losses and volatility on global stock markets, data showed. Combined net losses last month at six life insurers totaled NT$1.17 billion, down from combined net losses of NT$7.8 billion a month earlier, while cumulative net losses for the first two months of the year totaled NT$8.98 billion, the data showed. Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) reported the highest net loss of NT$2.91 billion, followed by Cathay Life Insurance Co’s (國泰人壽) net loss of NT$1.18 billion.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last