TAIEX falls on Greece fears
The TAIEX retreated yesterday amid renewed concerns over a possible default in Greece after the Greek government and its opposition parties failed to reach a consensus on an austerity plan to restructure its finances, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 29.52 points, or 0.33 percent, to 8,727.09 on turnover of NT$88.75 billion (US$3.07 billion).
However, investors bought flat-panel stocks on hopes that China will place large orders in the middle of this year and they also went bargain hunting for shares of cementmakers, petrochemical firms and property developers.
SinoPac in deal with Shanghai
The board of SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券), the securities unit of SinoPac Financial Holding Co (永豐金控), yesterday approved a plan to sign a cooperation memorandum with a Chinese peer, Shanghai Securities (上海證券), for educational and information exchanges in the future, the parent company said in a statement.
SinoPac Securities still needs approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission before inking the cooperation agreement, the statement said.
With a registered capital of 261 million yuan (US$40.2 million), Shanghai Securities, created in May 2001, has 1,000 employees and 56 offices in major cities of China.
Shin Kong sells off US bonds
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), Taiwan’s second-largest life insurer, sold 70 percent of its US Treasury holdings after a rally sent yields to the lowest level this year.
The sales took place this week, said Zeal Yin, who invests in US debt in Taipei for the company, which has the equivalent of US$53.2 billion in assets.
“We need more weak data to push yields lower,” he said.
Shin Kong also sold because the 10-year yield is falling toward its 200-day moving average, which can be a difficult barrier to break, he said.
Taipei No. 2 for conferences
Taipei was the second-most popular destination in Asia for conferences last year, according to the latest ranking by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
Taipei ranked only behind Singapore in Asia, up from seventh place in the region in 2009, and had a world-wide ranking of 11th, up from 25th place the previous year, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said on Tuesday, citing statistics from the ICCA.
Taipei hosted 99 international conferences last year, and had the fastest growth rate of 55 percent among all Asian cities, TAITRA said.
Hualien and Hsinchu also made it into the ICCA conference rankings for the first time, placing 284th and 309th, respectively.
NT dollar drops on China fears
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday dropped to near its weakest level in a month after foreign funds trimmed holdings of the nation’s stocks on concern a slowdown in China’s economy will hurt demand for exports.
Global investors sold US$906 million more local shares than they bought this week, according to exchange data. A Chinese manufacturing index compiled by HSBC Holdings PLC and Markit Economics fell to its lowest level in 10 months this month, data this week showed.
“Foreigners have been selling a lot of Taiwan stocks,” said Henry Lin, a Taipei-based foreign-exchange trader at Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行). “The worry that a China slowdown will affect Taiwan is definitely there.”
The NT dollar weakened 0.3 percent to NT$29.009 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
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
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
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