Profit-taking pares TAIEX gain
Shares closed 0.19 percent higher yesterday after late profit-taking pared gains made earlier on the back of Wall Street's overnight record performance, dealers said.
The TAIEX added 15.39 points to 8,000.04 but was off a high of 8,052.55 on turnover of NT$96.42 billion (US$2.92 billion).
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar dropped NT$0.024 against the US dollar to close at NT$33.216. Yesterday's turnover was US$970 million at the Taipei Forex Inc.
Bank to study Temasek model
A feasibility study would be conducted on whether to set up a company modeled on Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte to invest the nation's foreign reserves, said George Chou (周阿定), deputy governor of the nation's central bank.
"We'll study ways to improve our foreign reserve returns, including the Temasek model," Chou said, without elaborating. "There is still a long way to go."
Taiwan has foreign reserves of US$267.5 billion, the central bank reported on April 4.
About US$150 billion of the reserves, or 56 percent, is "hot money" for short-term investment, Chou said. The balance is in longer-term holdings, he said.
Asustek posts increased profit
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) yesterday reported a 26 percent increase in profits for last year.
Net income rose to NT$19.2 billion (US$578.6 million), or NT$5.43 a share, from NT$15.28 billion, or NT$4.51 a share, a year earlier, the company said.
The company said on Tuesday that it would pay a dividend of NT$2 per share for last year.
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