TAIEX advances nearly 2%
Taiwanese share prices closed up 1.97 percent yesterday, tracking Wall Street’s overnight rally and gains in regional markets, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 136.06 points to 7,034.96 on turnover of NT$120.43 billion (US$3.76 billion).
Gainers led losers 1,838 to 597 with 144 stocks unchanged.
KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) trader Randy Chang (張修華) said tourism and financial sectors led the rally on bargain hunting after recent sharp falls.
“Financials are rebounding ... The outlook seems positive ahead of Fubon Financial Holding Co’s (富邦金控) investor conference today,” he said.
MSCI adds Prime View
MSCI Barra announced early yesterday that it was adding Prime View International Co (元太科技), one of the world’s major makers of medium-sized flat-panel screens for consumer electronics, and local gaming content provider Chinese Gamer International Corp (中華網龍) to its Taiwan index.
Boosted by the news, shares of Prime View gained 6.93 percent to close at NT$43.20, while the stock of Chinese Gamer advanced 3.13 percent to NT$461.50 on the GRETAI Securities Market.
Globally, MSCI added 17 new stocks and cut three companies during the latest review, a press release posted on the global index compiler’s Web site showed.
AIDC to supply Pratt & Whitney
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔) yesterday signed a seven-year contract with US aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Co.
The NT$2 billion (US$60.81 million) contract will allow AIDC to produce turbine casings for Pratt & Whitney’s F100 engines. AIDC also hopes to obtain future orders for various engine components, as well as service and maintenance.
The F100 series engines are used in F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.
In 2007, AIDC signed a technical assistance agreement with Pratt & Whitney to jointly provide maintenance service for F100 engines, and as a result, received US government certification as a veritable provider of turbine casings for F100 engines.
Chinese airline opens in Taipei
China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) opened a subsidiary in Taipei yesterday to prepare for the launch of regular flights across the Taiwan Strait.
“Now that the company is set up, we can start selling tickets to Taiwanese customers,” company press officer Corinne Tseng (曾慶寧) said.
China Southern Airlines is the first Chinese airline to be permitted to open a subsidiary in Taiwan. Taiwan has also approved applications from six other Chinese airlines to open subsidiaries.
Eurozone dipped 0.1% in Q2
The eurozone economy contracted by just 0.1 percent in the second quarter as Germany and France unexpectedly emerged from recession, EU data showed yesterday.
The figures, which are initial estimates, fueled hopes that the eurozone’s biggest hitters could pull the others out of the worst recession the region has known since 1945, although analysts said the data should be treated with caution.
“The economy is still contracting [but] the situation is much better than we expected in the spring,” European Commission spokesman Ton Van Lierop told reporters in Bussels.
“The sharpest contractions in activity seem to be behind us,” he said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.052 to close at NT$32.898. Turnover was US$938 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