The stock market ended 2004 with a small gain yesterday, led by heavyweight Cathay Financial Holding Co (
"The central bank's decision to raise interest rates by 0.125 percentage point prompted expectations of a rise in profit margins for the financial sector," said Henry Miao (
"Insurance shares appeared to be the biggest beneficiaries," he said.
Cathay Financial, Taiwan's biggest financial holding company and insurer, advanced 1.56 percent to NT$65.
The benchmark TAIEX edged 38.83 points higher, or 0.64 percent, to 6,139.69 points, hitting a seven-month high since May.
The index climbed 4.23 percent for the whole of last year, weighed down by skyrocketing oil prices and political unrest stemming from the presidential election.
The yearly increase represented a lukewarm gain, compared with the 32-percent gain for 2003.
"The strong performance on the last trading day of 2004 should buoy investors' confidence for a bullish January," Miao said.
He also expected overseas fund managers to continue purchasing Taiwan's equities, as they played a key role in pushing higher the local stock market.
Foreign investors bought a net of NT$8.3 billion (US$261.5 million) worth of local shares yesterday.
Chien Po-yi (簡伯儀), a deputy manager of Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (
"We expect persistent global demand for steel and cement, as well as merger talks among financial holding companies, to keep moving the stock market," Chien said.
The TAIEX has a good chance of approaching 6,500 points this month, breaching the 10-year-average of 6,400 points and tracking the record over the past 16 years, Chien said.
Last year, raw-material shares such as steel makers outperformed the major index, largely as a result of China's voracious demand, a reverse of the trend of electronics usually taking the lead, he said.
Looking ahead, Chien warned that demand for cement and steel could slacken in the year ahead owing to Beijing's persistent measures to curb its overheating economy.
Shares of China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation's largest steelmaker, lost 1.65 percent to NT$35.8 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday after a media report that dwindling demand will transform China into a steel exporter from a heavy importer amid growing output.
Suppliers of raw materials, along with the financial sector, will still outpace electronics shares in the first half of the year, playing a major role in driving the TAIEX, Chien said.
He added that the semiconductor and flat-panel industries, which are plagued by overcapacity problems, may enjoy a full turnaround in the second half.
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