TAIEX closes up
The TAIEX closed up 0.62 percent yesterday as rotational buying boosted small and medium-cap stocks and select financial firms to reverse early losses on Wall Street’s weakness at the end of last week, dealers said.
The weighted index rose 49.64 points to 7,941.22 after moving between 7,850.56 and 7,941.22 on turnover of NT$119.43 billion (US$3.74 billion).
The market opened down 0.09 percent and moved to a low in early trade on falling US markets as investors became more cautious about the earnings outlook of the electronics sector for the second half of this year, dealers said.
However, select financial stocks on low valuations attracted bargain hunting and turned stronger in late trade, helping the broader market get out of the earlier slump, they said.
A total of 1,825 stocks closed up and 1,783 down with 307 stocks remaining unchanged.
BlackRock to acquire Primasia
BlackRock Inc plans to acquire Taiwan’s Primasia Investment Trust Co, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The company aims to finish the purchase in the second half of this year, the statement said.
Stephanie Chang (張郁棻), a spokeswoman for BlackRock in Taipei, declined to give financial details of the deal.
EVA Airways posts profit
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), Taiwan’s second-largest carrier, had net income of NT$5.22 billion in the first half of the year, or NT$1.76 a share, compared with a loss of NT$1.68 billion, or NT$0.74, a year earlier, the Taoyuan-based company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
UMC sells Mega shares
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), Taiwan’s second-largest maker of custom chips, sold NT$317.8 million of Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金) shares between Aug. 4 and yesterday at an average of NT$19.78 apiece, the Hsinchu-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
UMC booked NT$133.8 million profit from the share sale, the filing said.
Taipower buying green energy
The state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) announced that starting yesterday, companies could sell it renewable energy that they generated.
The private sector has been encouraged to deploy new equipment to produce renewable energy, such as wind power or solar power, as the nation seeks to reduce dependence on coal and gas to cut carbon dioxide emission.
These firms can now sell the energy back to Taipower on rates that were fixed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in July last year. Businesses can approach Taipower’s nationwide branches with necessary documents to apply for the payment, or search its Web site for more details, it said.
Central bank issues more CODs
The central bank issued NT$147.2 billion in certificates of deposit (COD) yesterday, more than the NT$132.15 billion that matured, the bank said in a statement on its Web site.
The bank sold 30-day certificates of deposit at an interest rate of 0.63 percent, 91-day at 0.67 percent, and 182-day at 0.77 percent, its Web site said.
NT dollar loses ground
The US dollar rose against the New Taiwan dollar yesterday, gaining NT$0.05 to close at the day’s high of NT$32.010.
Turnover totaled US$530 million during the trading session.
The greenback opened at NT$31.960 and moved to a low of NT$31.917 before rebounding.
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
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