■ Stocks rise once more
Shares rose for the third straight session yesterday, led by gains in contract chipmakers. The TAIEX rose 32 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,453.85. The index has risen 1.4 percent since last Thursday. "Since the contract chipmakers are index heavyweights, their gains had a significant effect on the index and market sentiment," said Bill Huang, a trader at KGI Securities Co (中信證券). Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電), the largest company on the main board by market capitalization, rose 1.8 percent to NT$61.4. Rival United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) gained 0.8 percent to NT$19.5. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's largest contract electronics maker by revenue, rose 2.4 percent to NT$194. The company said late on Monday that it made an additional investment of US$17.8 million in Hongzhun Precision Tooling, a wholly owned computer component unit in Kunshan, China.
■ Auction boosts currency bonds
The nation's currency bonds rose for a fourth day after a government auction of new 10-year securities attracted demand from long-term investors. The Ministry of Finance sold NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) of 10-year bonds yesterday at a yield of 1.773 percent, below the yield of existing securities. The ministry last Thursday said it would sell NT$115 billion of debt in the second quarter, 15 percent more than it sold in the same period last year. "Investors bought existing 10-year bonds for long-term investment although the market focus was on the new debt sale," said Tobby Lin, a fixed-income trader at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Co (元大京華證券). The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond fell 0.1 basis points, or 0.001 percentage points, to close at 1.804 percent, according to the GRETAI Securities Market, the nation's biggest exchange for bonds. The ministry plans to auction NT$40 billion in five-year bonds on April 11.
■ AUO secures project funds
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's No. 3 maker of liquid-crystal screens, hired banks for a US$300 million loan to expand production in China, said two people who were involved in the deal. ABN Amro Holding NV, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc are arranging the loan, said a banker involved and a company official, who both declined to be named. The seven-year financing is the longest-tenure foreign-currency loan yet for AU Optronics. The company is borrowing to expand a plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and build a new assembly facility in Xiamen.
■ Quanta Display to sell shares
Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子), a joint venture between Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Japan's Sharp Corp, said its board approved plans to sell as many as 800 million new shares to raise funds. Quanta Display, a flat-panel display maker, plans to raise up to NT$8 billion selling the new shares at a tentative price of NT$10 a share, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday. The company may sell the new shares overseas in the form of depositary receipts, or through a private placement, the statement said.
■ NT dollar drops slightly
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei foreign exchange market yesterday, declining NT$0.007 to close at NT$32.577. Turnover was US$697 million.
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