Shares rise 1.22%
Taiwanese shares rose 1.22 percent yesterday as the banking sector extended gains on hopes that a financial cooperation agreement with China would be signed soon, dealers said.
The weighted index closed 77.53 points higher at 6,457.61 on turnover of NT$120.75 billion (US$3.67 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,523 to 727, while 142 shares remained unchanged.
The market opened high and remained strong throughout the trading session on optimism that Taipei and Beijing would soon sign a landmark memorandum of understanding (MOU) on financial cooperation.
Share prices rallied 2.95 percent on Wednesday over the anticipated MOU, which analysts say would provide local banks with access to China’s financial market if it is followed up.
FSC in deal with Belgium
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) signed an exchange of letters (EOL) on Wednesday with its Belgian counterpart — the Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission — to strengthen cooperation on financial supervision.
The two commissions agreed to share information, hold regular meetings and keep in contact, conduct field inspections and visits and cooperate in fighting financial crimes, the FSC said.
Four Taiwanese banks — Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) and Taiwan Business Bank (臺灣企銀) — have jointly established the Taiwan United Bank in Brussels.
Belgium’s KBC Bank NV and Fortis Bank have set up four branches in Taiwan, the FSC said.
To date the FSC has signed 38 memorandums of understanding and EOLs with counterparts around the world.
ECFA talks in October?
The two sides of the Taiwan Strait may start talks in October on the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said.
Yiin was speaking on Wednesday after Fan Liqing (范麗青), spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said earlier in the day that Taiwan and China were likely to start negotiations on an ECFA later this year.
Yiin said preliminary research on ECFA-related subjects was expected to be complete within days, after which a comprehensive three-month study would be conducted, he added.
The two sides would meet for preliminary talks in the interim, Yiin said.
TAIFEX board reshuffled
A Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) shareholder meeting yesterday reshuffled the TAIFEX’s 15-member board and five supervisory seats, the exchange said in a press release.
TAIFEX chairman Andy Yeh (葉景成) is to be replaced by a government appointee, who is yet to be named, after his three-year tenure ends on July 23, the exchange said.
Eleven new board directors and three new supervisors were elected yesterday; all are entitled to nominate four independent directors and two candidates for supervisor within a month. From these candidates the government will appoint two directors and one supervisor.
The government will then appoint the final two directors, including the chairman, and the final supervisor, TAIFEX said.
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.108 to close at NT$32.970. Turnover was US$957 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