The Ministry of Finance is open to expanding the NT$500 billion (US$15.38 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to more effectively counter the effects of negative external factors on the local stock market, Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) said yesterday.
A possible expansion could make the fund more effective given a significant rise in market capitalization in the past decade, Chuang said at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei.
The ministry would address the issue after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) initiates an amendment to the Statute for the Establishment and Administration of the National Financial Stabilization Fund (國家金融安定基金設置及管理條例) that would raise the size of the fund to NT$1 trillion.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Under the statute, the NSF can utilize two sources of funding.
It can borrow from financial institutions, collateralized by stock held by the National Treasury Administration in public and private enterprises, with a ceiling of NT$200 billion.
It can also borrow from the postal deposit system, Postal Life Insurance Fund, Labor Insurance Fund, Labor Pension Fund and Civil Servant Pension Fund, with a ceiling of NT$300 billion.
Kuo has proposed removing the ceilings of the two borrowing sources to allow the NSF flexibility in raising funds to counter turbulence in the market.
The stabilization fund was set up in 2000 to serve as a buffer against unexpected external factors that might disrupt the local stock market.
The market’s value has soared to more than NT$70 trillion from NT$8 trillion in 2000, Kuo said.
When the local stock market encountered headwinds from tariff threats from US President Donald Trump’s administration, the stabilization fund’s committee intervened starting from Tuesday last week, the ninth intervention since its establishment.
The stabilization fund has never used the second borrowing source and the committee’s executive secretary — Deputy Minister of Finance Frank Juan (阮清華) — is careful when managing the fund to support the market and shore up investor confidence, Chuang said.
Chuang said she has closely watched the decline in turnover in the local stock market as many investors stayed on the sidelines amid tariff concerns.
The average combined turnover of the main board and the over-the-counter market shrank 27.4 percent year-on-year to NT$400.4 billion last month, the ministry said.
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month fell 24.6 percent to NT$21.9 billion from a year earlier, the steepest decline in 26 months, ministry data showed.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced