TAIEX posts 0.70 percent gain
Taiwanese share prices staged a rebound yesterday, led by electronics, as investors took their cue from gains posted by other regional markets, while the debt problems in Europe receded to some extent, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 61.31 points, or 0.70 percent, to 8,788.40, after moving between 8,751.52 and 8,807.08, on turnover of NT$86.90 billion (US$3.01 billion).
Mega Securities (兆豐證券) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said the thin trading volume indicated that many investors were reluctant to chase prices amid cautious sentiment regarding the global economic climate.
Lenovo profit more than doubles
Lenovo Group (聯想), the world’s fourth-largest PC maker, said yesterday last fiscal year’s profit more than doubled as global demand rebounded.
Profit rose to US$273 million, or US$2.73 per share, for the year ending on March 31, from US$129.4 million last year, the company said. Global sales rose 30 percent to US$21.6 billion.
Growth was driven by strong demand in China and other emerging markets and a revival in purchases by corporate customers that put off buying new computer equipment following the 2008 global crisis, the company said.
Lenovo said China accounted for 46.4 percent of sales last year, or US$10 billion, while other emerging markets made up 17.9 percent of the total, or US$3.9 billion. The US, Europe and other mature markets accounted for the remaining 35.7 percent of sales, or US$7.7 billion, it said.
Investment agreement delayed
Taiwan is not expected to forge an investment protection agreement with China anytime soon, certainly not by next month, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
Shih said a delegation of -Chinese officials was `currently in Taiwan to meet their counterparts from the Ministry of Economic Affairs for talks on a cross-strait investment protection agreement, but they were not expected to wrap up discussions by next month.
He was reluctant to speculate on whether the cross-strait investment protection agreement could be concluded before the end of the year.
However, he said Taiwan was still aiming to sign the agreement during the next round of high-level cross-strait meetings.
Taiwanese look for China jobs
About 77 percent of Taiwanese employees are willing to explore job opportunities in China, 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行), a major job agency in Taiwan, reported yesterday.
The online job bank’s latest survey indicated that the annual salaries of 74.2 percent of employees were higher after they worked in China. Their average annual income increases by NT$370,000 (US$12,758).
According to the survey, 69.8 percent of the respondents were interested in looking for work in Shanghai. Nearly 34 percent hope to find employment in Beijing. Other areas, such as Suzhou, Hong Kong and Xiamen, are also coveted destinations for Taiwanese job seekers.
NT gains against US dollar
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US currency yesterday, adding NT$0.064 to close at NT$28.945 as worse-than-expected durable goods orders in the US dampened sentiment, dealers said.
However, the Taiwanese central bank’s continued efforts to boost the greenback helped the unit recoup part of its earlier losses, they said.
Turnover totaled US$743 million during the session, down from US$1.04 billion in the previous session.
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