TAIEX makes technical rebound
Taiwan’s stock market staged a technical rebound from early losses yesterday on the back of bargain hunting after the TAIEX fell below the 7,300 point mark in response to Wall Street’s fall overnight, dealers said.
While bargain hunters focused on select defensive stocks, such as telecoms firms, many investors remained on the sidelines with an eye on the debt situation in the eurozone ahead of the Spanish general election on Sunday, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 0.29 points at 7,387.81, after moving between 7,284.30 and 7392.82, on turnover of NT$71.70 billion (US$2.37 billion).
Vehicle output rises 13.2%
The production value of finished vehicles in Taiwan is expected to grow by 13.2 percent this year thanks to brisk sales in the domestic automobile market, according to a report released yesterday by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工業技術研究院).
The report said the production value of automobiles in the third quarter increased 24.8 percent from the second quarter, and fourth-quarter output was expected to jump 4.5 percent from the previous quarter to NT$51.47 billion.
Automobile output value for the whole year is forecast to reach NT$186.9 billion, up 13.2 percent from last year, the report said.
Driven by robust finished automobile production, the output of vehicle parts and components is projected to increase 6.4 percent to NT$187 billion, it said.
Fire scare at HTC building
HTC Corp (宏達電) said a spark caused smoke in its new building in Xindian District (新店), New Taipei City (新北市), yesterday morning, but no one was hurt in the incident.
The smoke emerged from the seventh floor of a HTC building under construction in Xindian and was quickly dealt with, the -company said in a statement.
HTC said all its staff were safe, and promised to conduct a thorough safety inspection of the building.
Acer secures NT$15bn loan
PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) signed an agreement with a group of banks, including Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) and Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), for a five-year, NT$15 billion loan the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Acer plans to use the money to repay a syndicated loan arranged by Citibank in 2007, and to replenish mid-to-long term working capital, the statement said.
TDCC signs deal with HKSCC
Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, (台灣集保) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Hong Kong Securities Clearing Co (HKSCC) in Taipei on Wednesday.
The MOU on collaboration and exchange of information was part of TDCC’s efforts to expand its international business, TDCC chairman Ding Kung-wha (丁克華) said.
The Taipei-based company has MOUs with 14 other foreign entities in countries such as the US, Germany and Japan, Ding said.
HKSCC is a subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.
NT dollar rises slightly
The New Taiwan dollar rose against its US counterpart yesterday, adding NT$0.02 to close at NT$30.210 after the local unit recouped early losses following a rebound in the local bourse, dealers said.
However, sentiment remained cautious over the European financial crisis, ensuring the two currencies fluctuated within a narrow band and trading volume remained thin, they said.
Turnover totaled US$701 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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last