Spotlight Stock: Advantest's Strong Earnings Boost Two Japanese Semiconductor ETFs by Over 5%

The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for the fifth consecutive time, but post-meeting hawkish signals from officials briefly dampened market risk appetite, causing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index to plunge 5% on the 29th. However, on the 30th, stock markets in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea were not fully dragged down and instead showed signs of recovery, demonstrating relative resilience. After a temporary digestion of selling pressure in tech stocks, market funds gradually regained confidence and began buying on dips. Benefiting from a rebound in Japan's semiconductor sector, Japanese semiconductor ETFs listed in Taiwan also performed strongly, with Taishin Japan Semiconductor (00951-TW) and CTBC Japan Semiconductor (00954-TW) both surging over 5% during trading.

Institutional investors noted that Japanese semiconductor stocks had been correcting since July. However, recently, several major semiconductor equipment manufacturers released financial results that exceeded market expectations. Advantest, the globally watched leader in semiconductor testing equipment, announced its Q1 FY2026 earnings on the 29th. The company not only delivered strong results but also raised its outlook for both the industry and itself.

The earnings report revealed that Advantest revised its forecast for the global semiconductor test equipment market upward by 19%, raising it to a range of $13 to $14.5 billion. It also raised its full-year guidance, increasing its sales forecast from ¥1.42 trillion to ¥1.71 trillion—an annual increase of over 50%. Its operating profit forecast was also revised upward by 35%, with year-on-year growth expected to reach 70%. Earnings per share (EPS) are projected to hit a record high.

Advantest is a leading global provider of semiconductor automated test equipment (ATE), holding over 60% market share in the global chip test equipment market. Analysts pointed out that as demand for AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and CoWoS advanced packaging rapidly expands, chip complexity continues to rise, increasing the importance of the testing phase. Advantest plays an indispensable role in the semiconductor supply chain and has recently been actively expanding production to meet strong customer demand.

Fueled by the positive earnings news, Advantest's stock price surged strongly on the 30th, with intraday gains exceeding 11%. This rally lifted other semiconductor equipment and component stocks such as Tokyo Electron and Disco, driving Taiwan-listed Japanese semiconductor ETFs sharply higher.

CTBC Japan Semiconductor (00954-TW) fund manager Hsu Chia-yu stated that the strong quarterly results reaffirm that the AI-driven structural growth trend is not only ongoing but accelerating. Test demand will benefit alongside growing shipments of GPUs, ASICs, and CPUs. During the earnings call, management emphasized that the current growth momentum stems not only from increased chip shipments but also from the rapid expansion of AI inference applications across industries and use cases, significantly boosting chip testing demand. Testing items, complexity, and frequency are all rising.

Hsu further noted that the strong financial performance indicates that the correction in Japanese semiconductor stocks since July was primarily due to market sentiment and capital rotation, not a deterioration in fundamentals. Against the backdrop of unchanged long-term AI trends and continued capital expenditure expansion by global tech giants, investors should seize market pullbacks as opportunities to gradually build positions in semiconductor equipment and key supply chain companies with high technical barriers, industrial moats, and long-term growth potential, thereby capturing the next wave of growth in the AI inference era.

*Disclaimer: The information on individual stocks, funds, and futures mentioned in this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors should make independent judgments, carefully assess risks, and bear their own profits and losses.