TAIEX closes down 1.69%
The nation’s benchmark index retreated yesterday as investors turned cautious about the debt situation in Greece as European finance ministers delayed a meeting to decide on a bailout package for the country, dealers said.
Selling mounted during the trading session, with investors cutting positions in large-cap stocks as the market encountered strong technical resistance after the index had breached the 8,000-point mark in the previous session, they said.
The TAIEX closed down 135.54 points, or 1.69 percent, at 7,869.70, after moving between 7,851.62 and 8,010.50 points on turnover of NT$159.41 billion (US$5.39 billion).
TWSE unveils new measure
On Monday, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) will launch a new measure to disclose the reference best bid/ask price during the closing session (1:25pm to 1:30pm) to reinforce information disclosure.
The exchange said the move is expected to provide investors with a reference for the highest bid price and the lowest ask price to facilitate trading in the market.
TWSE said the new measure would be supported by a feature similar to the intraday volatility interruption system, which would start whenever the reference price of certain stocks rise or fall by more than 3.5 percent of the last reference price a minute before the close (1:29pm to 1:30pm).
The orders of that stock would not be matched from 1:30pm to 1:31pm, but would be postponed for two minutes from 1:31pm to 1:33pm.
During the two-minute postponement, investors can add, modify or cancel their orders, the exchange said.
TWSE will disclose the reference bid/ask price every 20 seconds during the postponement and then match the orders at 1:33pm, it said.
Hon Hai auctions bonds
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), the world’s largest maker of electronics parts, is auctioning NT$9 billion of five-year bonds with a 1.34 percent yield, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, citing two of the offering’s underwriters.
Hon Hai will issue the bonds next month and use the proceeds to fund its expansions in China, the report said.
FSC announces Kuo Hua plan
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday announced plans to introduce strategic partners to bail out loss-making Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co (國華人壽) through a public tender.
The regulator, which has placed the insurer under government receivership until August, said the effort to coordinate a takeover by state-owned Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控) failed because the two remained divided over acquisition terms.
The commission took control of the insolvent insurer in August 2009 and appointed the semi-official Insurance Stabilization Fund (保險安定基金) as its receiver.
The planned auction will not affect Kuo Hua’s operations, the commission said.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.1 to close at NT$29.635 as traders took cues from a falling euro and dumped the local currency, dealers said.
The sell off of the NT dollar reflected rising worries over the eurozone’s debt problems after a key meeting on a bailout package for Greece was postponed, they said.
A plunge in the local bourse added downward pressure on the NT dollar, prompting traders to raise their US dollar holdings during the session, they added.
Turnover totaled US$816 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
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