TAIEX closes down 0.4 percent
The TAIEX closed down 0.4 percent yesterday, dragged down by construction shares on fears the government would impose a new tax to curb speculation in the property market, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 35.01 points to 8,718.83, after moving between 8,684.05 and 8,744.67, on turnover of NT$143.34 billion (US$4.75 billion).
The market opened down 0.57 percent and moved to the day’s low as investors pocketed the gains posted in the previous session, dealers said.
However, after the index fell below the 8,700-point mark, bargain hunters emerged to help the market recoup some of its losses, they said.
A total of 2,848 stocks closed down, 1,438 finished up, and 308 remained unchanged.
Fubon seeking FSC approval
Fubon Financial Holding Co’s (富邦金控) life and property insurance units plan to apply to the Financial Supervisory Commission for approval to invest in China, the Taipei-based company said in statements to the stock exchange yesterday.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) plans to invest 320 million yuan (US$48.1 million) to form a life insurance venture with Nanjing Zijin Investment Holding Co (紫金控股), while Fubon Property and Casualty Insurance Co (富邦產險) plan to invest 80 million yuan in the venture, according to two separate exchange statements.
China Life acquires properties
China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) bought properties in Taipei from Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corp (台灣化學纖維) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) for NT$405 million, the Taipei-based insurance company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Foxconn hiring in China
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, said its Chinese workforce now exceeds 1 million employees as the company continues to hire during the holiday season.
“We’re still hiring as we speak,” Louis Woo (胡國輝), special assistant to the CEO, said in a phone interview in Shenzhen yesterday.
Customer demand is spurring hiring, Woo said, who is responsible for supervising employee welfare at the maker of Apple Inc iPads and Hewlett-Packard Co computers.
Central bank sold 10-year bonds
The central bank on Thursday sold NT$40 billion of 10-year bonds at a yield of 1.471 percent.
The sale of the securities maturing in September 2020 attracted bids for 1.56 times the amount of debt on offer, the central bank said in a statement.
The central bank last sold the same bonds in September at a yield of 1.228 percent. That offer garnered a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.86 times.
Yuanta to hold forum
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), which owns the nation’s largest securities brokerage, said yesterday it will host a forum on Monday aimed at bridging the knowledge gap on cross-strait financial rules, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The forum will take place in Taipei, where banking, insurance and securities officials from Beijing will share their views on capital market development and cooperation opportunities between the two sides, the statement said.
NT falls against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.03 to close at NT$30.585.
Turnover totaled US$712 million during the trading session.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the