EQUITIES

TAIEX gains ground

The TAIEX rose for a second consecutive session yesterday after the US Federal Reserve slowed its pace of interest rate hikes following a two-day policymaking meeting, boosting Wall Street overnight. Buying of local shares was also backed by the bellwether electronics sector, especially semiconductor stocks such as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The TAIEX closed up 175.03 points, or 1.14 percent, at 15,595.16. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$271.826 billion (US$9.15 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$22.538 billion of local shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Foreign investors had made net purchases of local shares for 13 consecutive sessions as of yesterday, the data showed.

LOTTERIES

Tainan store sells winner

The sole winning ticket for the top prize of more than NT$120 million in Wednesday’s Grand Lottery was sold by a store in Tainan’s East District (東區), Taiwan Lottery Co (台灣彩券) said yesterday. The winning ticket was sold by the Hui Te lottery ticket store (惠德彩券行) on Chongshan Road. The winning numbers were 33, 19, 08, 05, 23 and 46, while the special number was 48. There were 32 tickets with six or more of nine numbers drawn in the special prize lottery. The nine numbers were: 28, 02, 40, 26, 15, 11, 03, 06 and 04, Taiwan Lottery said. Of the 32 winners, 18 were for the top prize of NT$1 million each, while 14 won NT$500,000 each after selecting the same six numbers as another winning ticket.

EMPLOYMENT

Unpaid leave rate increases

The number of workers on formal unpaid leave programs increased over the past two weeks, with the manufacturing sector most affected, the Ministry of Labor said on Wednesday. Ministry data showed that the number of workers on furlough rose to 15,190 as of Wednesday, up by 994 from Jan. 16 before the Lunar New Year holiday. Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said the manufacturing sector was the biggest contributor to the increase in furloughed workers, accounting for nearly half of them. Two firms — a machine tools company and a metalworks — blamed “cuts in orders” for decisions to keep workers away an extra day a week, with 360 and 100 workers respectively starting unpaid leave programs in the two-week period.

EQUALITY

Ten new firms make list

Ten companies headquartered in Taiwan have been added to the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, bringing the number of Taiwanese firms on the list to 16, the biggest increase of any country in the Asia-Pacific region. Among the 16 Taiwanese firms are AUO Corp (友達光電), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體), Zhen Ding Technology Holding Ltd (臻鼎科技), Oneness Biotech Co (合一生技), King’s Town Bank Co (京城銀行), E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控). Also included on the list are Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控), CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), Sinbon Electronics Co (信邦電子) and Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co (合庫金控).