TAIEX recoups early losses
The TAIEX recouped most of its early heavy losses on the back of bargain hunting in select high-tech stocks late in the trading session as investors took advantage of their low valuations, dealers said.
However, despite the late buying, turnover remained moderate as many investors remained on the sidelines, waiting to see how the eurozone debt crisis would play out after Greece said it would hold a referendum on a debt resolution plan hammered out by EU leaders.
The TAIEX closed down 23.56 points, or 0.31 percent, at 7,598.45, after moving between 7,448.24 and 7,599.54, on turnover of NT$95.48 billion (US$3.16 billion).
Yang Ming lines up big deal
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), the nation’s No. 2 container shipper, might gain about NT$912 million by selling from US$29 million to US$30 million of containers to Textainer Ltd from Feb. 1 to Nov. 2 next year, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Food company plans raises
Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全), operated by Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), yesterday said it planned to raise employees’ wages by between 3 and 5 percent next year.
Despite some local enterprises asking employees to go on unpaid leave amid the weakening economy, Wei Chuan will adjust salaries based on annual inflation, Ting Hsin chairman Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交) said.
The fourth-quarter economy seems to be faring slightly worse than the third, but Wei said he is upbeat about prospects into the second quarter of next year.
Green Energy revenues drop
Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s biggest solar wafer maker, yesterday said its revenues were almost halved last month on falling prices, down from NT$1.67 billion a year ago to NT$897 million last month.
Compared with September’s NT$1.13 billion, last month’s revenues plummeted 20.5 percent.
As prices mostly plunged to below cost levels, Green Energy said it would only accept orders that offered reasonable prices.
The Taoyuan-based solar wafer maker said it expects costs to improve significantly once its inventories are depleted.
Last week, Green Energy slashed its earnings forecast for the second time to a loss this year of NT$2.04 billion from its previous forecast of a NT$610 million loss.
Lenovo’s Q2 profits soar 88%
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), China’s biggest maker of personal computers, reported second-quarter profits rose 88 percent, beating analysts’ estimates, after boosting sales to companies in the US and gaining market share globally.
Net income climbed to US$143.9 million in the three months ending on Sept. 30, or US$1.38 a share, from US$76.6 million, or US$0.76 a share a year earlier, Lenovo said yesterday in a statement. Profits exceeded the US$119.3 million average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenues rose 35 percent to US$7.79 billion.
Bad-loan ratio up for two banks
The Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工業銀行) and Cosmos Bank Taiwan (萬泰銀行) saw their bad-loan ratio in September rise above the 2 percent threshold, jumping to 2.67 percent and 8.11 percent respectively, compared with the nation’s average bad-loan ratio of 0.51 percent for the month, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US currency yesterday, declining NT$0.032 to close at NT$30.118.
Turnover totaled US$883 million during the trading session.
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
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
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