Stocks rose to their highest level in almost three-and-a-half years yesterday. China Steel Corp (
"China's fast-growing economy has started to cause shortages in construction materials such as steel," said Tom Fu, a fund manager at Prudential Securities Investment Trust Co (保誠投信) in Taiwan.
The TAIEX advanced 57.29, or 0.9 percent, to close at 6,750.54. That is its highest close since Sept. 21, 2000. The index climbed 5.9 percent this month, its third straight month of gains.
Futures for March delivery added 1 percent to close at 6,802.
About seven stocks gained for every three that declined.
China Steel jumped 4.6 percent to close at NT$34. The company plans to boost prices for six types of products starting April 1.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest supplier of made-to-order chips, rose NT$.10, or 0.3 percent, to NT$30.40 after saying it would buy the semiconductor plant of Silicon Integrated Systems Corp (矽統) for NT$10.7 billion (US$321.5 million) to meet demand for chips after a three-year global slump. Silicon Integrated shed 2.5 percent to close at NT$27.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) rose 5.4 percent to close at NT$33.30. The company and three others won a contract to provide the government with an electronic toll-collection system for the nation's highways.
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