TAIEX surges past 7,000 mark
The stock market made a strong showing yesterday, vaulting past the 7,100 mark, as investors were encouraged by several central banks’ measures to boost liquidity to weather the impact of the eurozone debt crisis, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 274.57 points, or 3.98 percent, at 7,178.69, after moving between 7,129.07 and 7,199.26, on turnover of NT$109.8 billion (US$3.65 billion).
The financial sector scored the highest gains among the eight major sectors, finishing up 6.4 percent, stock exchange data showed.
Too early for HK FTA: official
It is too early to discuss a free-trade agreement (FTA) between Taiwan and Hong Kong as relations between the two governments are not sufficiently close, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
Shih made the remark at a technology policy forum organized by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology when he was asked whether such a trade pact should be signed.
“We know we should head toward that direction, but the question is how. In terms of this issue, we should do it step by step,” he said.
Shih said more exchanges needed to take place to better understand each other and resolve previous misunderstandings arising from insufficient interaction.
iPhone 4S pre-orders start
The nation’s three biggest telecoms operators — Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) — are launching pre-order services for Apple Inc’s latest iPhone series, the companies said yesterday.
Taiwan Mobile and Far Eas-Tone started accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 4S yesterday, while Chunghwa Telecom’s pre-order program starts today on the Internet.
The iPhone 4S is set to hit the shelves of local phone companies, two-and-a-half-months after its debut in the US.
The companies did not release pricing and service packages.
Pegatron bond sales approved
Electronics contract manufacturer Pegatron Corp’s (和碩) board approved a plan to sell as much as US$400 million in five-year overseas convertible bonds to fund the purchase of raw materials abroad, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Thursday.
First, China firm ink agreement
First Securities Inc (第一金證券), the brokerage arm of state-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), yesterday signed a cooperation agreement with Western Securities Co (西部證券), based in Shaanxi Province, China, First Financial said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
CPC schedules maintenance
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) plans to halt its No. 4 naphtha cracker’s operations for 40 to 43 days for scheduled maintenance starting on Monday, ICIS reported, citing a company official it didn’t identify.
The plant can produce 385,000 tonnes of ethylene a year from naphtha.
NT dollar advances further
The New Taiwan dollar continued gaining ground against its US counterpart yesterday, adding NT$0.231 to close at NT$30.114, bolstered by an inflow of foreign funds as the local bourse rebounded, dealers said.
A rising euro also prompted traders to cut their holdings in the greenback and buy into most of the currencies in the region, they said
Turnover totaled US$655 million, data showed.
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