■ Stocks down on profit-taking
Share prices closed 0.87 percent lower yesterday as investors took profits on the recent advance above the key 6,000 points level, in line with generally weaker regional markets, dealers said. They said sentiment may have been unsettled by fresh concerns over bird flu after reports that traces of a variant of the disease had been found near Tainan.
The TAIEX lost 52.88 points at 6,030.74, on turnover of NT$64.94 billion (US$1.94 billion).
■ Nanya denies purchase
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Taiwan's No.2 maker of memory chips for computers, yesterday denied reports that it would buy a memory-chip unit from its partner Infineon Technology AG.
"We deny this speculation and do not comment on any rumors," Nanya Technology spokesman Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) said in a company statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The statement came after Reuters reported that Infineon would sell its US memory assets to Micron Technology Inc and sell its non-US memory assets to Nanya Technology, including a flagship plant in Dresden, Germany, citing a research note published by US investment bank Needham & Co.
Infineon, the world's No.4 memory chipmaker, is a joint venture partner of Nanya Technology. Infineon holds a 50-percent stake in Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) based in northern Taiwan.
■ Logitech looking up
Logitech International SA, the world's biggest maker of computer mice, is eyeing more potential from its booming web camera business, an official said yesterday at a product launch.
"The maturing wireless broadband infrastructure and increased Internet population will improve our web camera business here," said Eric Chen (陳憲華), country manager for sales and marketing.
This segment is expected to contribute around 40 percent to the company's revenue in Taiwan next year, up from 30 percent this year, he added.
According to Chen, as more home users and mobile travelers opt for higher-end web cameras for better quality and functionality, this will benefit Logitech as it produces sophisticated web cameras.
Though web cameras priced below NT$1,000 currently account for 80 percent of the market, he believes that higher-end models will take center stage next year.
The company launched four new models of web cameras retailing from NT$2,650 to NT$4,290. These cameras come with a maximum of 1.3-megapixel resolution and a built-in microphone.
■ Confidence drops again
The nation's investment confidence weakened for second time in a row with the index hitting a new low at 93.3 points this month, dragged down by a fluctuating global financial market and domestic political disputes, according to a survey released by JF Asset Management Taiwan on Monday.
The bimonthly survey polled 1,084 investors nationwide between Oct. 19 and last Wednesday.
It said that nearly 70 percent of respondents had no intention of adding more investments.
Investor possession of local stocks in portfolios has also declined to a level of 57.6 percent from 63 percent at the beginning of this year as they divert investment overseas, the survey said.
As many as 78.3 percent of respondents said domestic politics was the main factor explaining the stock market's underperformance in comparison with its regional counterparts, it said.
■ NT dollar trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.117 to close at NT$33.512 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$918 million.
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
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