Losses drag shares lower
The TAIEX fell 0.89 percent yesterday to close below the psychological 8,000-point mark and a one-month moving average of 8,018 points.
The market was dragged down by losses in traditional industries, the financial sector and electronics companies.
The index closed down 71.22 points at 7,972.70. Turnover totaled NT$81.77 billion (US$2.77 billion) during the session.
A total of 1,070 stocks closed up and 2,931 finished down, while 366 remained unchanged.
Most of the eight major stock categories closed down, with plastics and chemicals and the financial sectors both suffering the heaviest losses, each finishing down 1.2 percent.
Elpida seeks protection in US
Elpida Memory Inc, the last Japanese maker of computer-memory chips, sought protection from its creditors in the US on Monday as it pursues a bankruptcy case in Japan.
The Tokyo-based chipmaker filed court papers in the US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, listing more than US$1 billion in assets and debt. It asked the court to recognize the Japanese case as the main bankruptcy proceeding.
Chapter 15 of the bankruptcy code allows foreign companies reorganizing abroad to protect their assets from creditors and lawsuits in the US.
Procurement event announced
The Bureau of Foreign Trade will organize a procurement event for local suppliers and foreign buyers on March 29 in Taipei, with potential business opportunities totaling US$4.6 billion, the bureau said on Monday.
The event will feature a wide variety of fields, such as computers, solar power, telecommunications, LEDs, machinery, automobile components and food, as well as the medical equipment and biotechnology industries.
As of Monday, 566 buyers from 59 countries are scheduled to attend the sourcing event, set to take place at the Taipei World Trade Center, the bureau said.
Of those 566, 330 buyers are from Asia, with 90 from Europe and 56 from the Middle East.
Web boosts China Telecom profit
State-owned China Telecom Corp (中國電信) said yesterday that its net profit rose 7.5 percent last year on the back of increased demand for Internet services.
In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China’s largest fixed-line operator said its net profit for the calendar year was 16.50 billion yuan (US$2.61 billion), compared with 15.35 billion yuan the previous year.
Its total number of mobile subscribers increased 39.70 percent to 126 million, including 36.29 million 3G subscribers, about three times more than in 2010.
Revenue climbed 12 percent to 245.04 billion yuan.
Thailand buys Chinese tablets
Thailand’s Cabinet has approved the purchase of 860,000 tablet computers from a little-known Chinese company for students in the first year of primary school.
Thai Minister of Information Anudith Nakornthap said yesterday he hoped the contract with Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development Co (深圳希科普科技) could be signed this month so the devices could arrive before the new school term starts in May.
The Chinese company offered a lowest-bid price of US$81 for each seven-inch touch-screen computer.
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the greenback yesterday, declining NT$0.026 to close at NT$29.558.
Turnover totaled US$494 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