TAIEX closes down 0.05%
The TAIEX closed down 0.05 percent yesterday owing to a lack of market momentum, with financial stocks suffering the heaviest losses, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 4.62 points to 8,839.22 on a low turnover of NT$116.84 billion (US$3.98 billion).
The financial sector fell 0.8 percent, foodstuffs dropped 0.56 percent, textiles lost 0.53 percent, construction stocks finished 0.3 percent lower, paper and pulp shares shed 0.27 percent and the machinery and electronics sector closed down 0.19 percent.
The plastics and chemicals sector rose 1.42 percent and cement stocks increased 0.63 percent.
A total of 1,554 stocks closed up, 2,704 finished down, and 352 remained unchanged.
Chinese ECC delegation arrives
A Chinese delegation arrived in Taiwan yesterday in preparation for the first meeting of the cross-Taiwan Strait Economic Cooperation Committee (ECC) to be held today.
The ECC was established by the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), to deal with issues involving the bilateral Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed in June, which paves the way for liberalization and normalization of cross-strait trade ties.
“All ECFA-related issues will be discussed at the first ECC meeting,” said ARATS deputy chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中), who is heading the Chinese delegation, upon arrival at a hotel in Jhongli City near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where the ECC meeting will be held in the coming three days.
SEF Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) and Zheng serve as co-conveners of the ECC.
Sintek Photronic receives fine
Taiwan Stock Exchange fined Sintek Photronic Corp (和鑫光電) NT$100,000 over misleading statements on its cooperation with Samsung Mobile Display Co, according to an e-mailed statement from the exchange in Taipei yesterday. There were discrepancies between the Sintek’s statements issued on Tuesday and Thursday, the exchange said.
‘Bridge building’ continues
Into its third year of running, 12 more cross-strait meetings under the “Bridge Building Projects” banner are planned this year to offer a platform for Taiwanese industries to exchange views, solicit business opportunities and set up common standards with their Chinese peers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Three meetings are to be held in China, with participants expected from the biotech, digital content and electronics-recycling industries. Nine meetings have been scheduled in Taipei, with the focus industries including Chinese medical herbs, IT services, communications, metal materials, renewable energy, logistics, LED lighting, automotives and precision machinery, the ministry said.
Current-account at US$10.1bn
Taiwan’s current-account surplus was US$10.1 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, the central bank said in a statement in Taipei yesterday. The median estimate of six economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a surplus of US$8.5 billion.
NT dollar gains 0.1%
The New Taiwan dollar advanced for a third successive day before a government report yesterday showed export orders gained for a 16th month. The NT dollar advanced 0.1 percent to end at NT$29.366 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
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