■ TAIEX closes flat
Shares ended flat yesterday, with caution over the central bank's quarterly meeting next week and over the New Taiwan dollar's decline offsetting any potential lift from the overnight US stock rally. The TAIEX rose only 1 point, or 0.01 percent, to 6,141.14. Analysts said investors are concerned the NT dollar's recent decline will trigger further foreign-fund outflows. Meanwhile, uncertainty about the central bank's monetary policy decisions at its quarterly meeting on Sept. 15 weighed on shares, analysts said. In a report published yesterday, Citigroup said it expects the central bank to raise the key interest rate by 25 basis points because of higher-than-expected inflationary pressure and rising oil prices.
■ Hsieh monitoring inflation
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday promised that he will do his best to avoid inflation, in terms of raising local gasoline and utilities prices. Last month, the consumer price index rose 3.56 percent year-on-year on rising food and energy expenses, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported on Monday. While the CPI figure was a seven-year high, the government said the inflation barometer is within a reasonable range. "Our analysis and study also shows that the 3.56 percent inflation was a result of the devastation by two typhoons in the same month," Hsieh told a press briefing. According to the DGBAS, 3 percent inflation is regarded as reasonable.
■ UMC says monthly sales rose
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second ranked contract chipmaker, said yesterday that its sales rose to NT$8.01 billion (US$245 million) last month from NT$7.07 billion in July but were down 30.43 percent from a year earlier. Sales in the eight months to last month fell to NT$54.80 billion from NT$77.22 billion previously, it said, without giving further details. At a July 27 investor conference, UMC had said it expected wafer shipments in the third quarter to increase by mid-teen percentage points from the second. The company also expected its selling prices to rise by low single-digit percentage points sequentially.
■ FSC in talks about futures index
The Financial Supervisory Commission is in talks with Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc about compiling a Taiwan futures index, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing commission spokesman Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正). The talks will initially focus on compiling an index for foreign-currency denominated futures products, in a bid to strengthen the competitiveness of Taiwan's futures market, the paper said. The commission on Aug. 16 denied a report that Morgan Stanley Capital International may remove the nation's stock market from its global indexes because of disputes over the pricing of its MSCI Taiwan index futures.
■ NT dollar pares losses
The New Taiwan dollar pared losses as investors abroad bought the most of the nation's stocks in a month. Increasing equity demand spurred speculation that global fund managers will need to buy more NT dollars to fund their purchases. The NT dollar weakened 0.2 percent to NT$32.643 after falling to a one-week low of NT$32.706, according to Taipei Forex Inc. Money managers outside Taiwan bought a net NT$2.8 billion (US$86 million) of the nation's shares, the most since Aug. 11, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange figures.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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