TAIEX closes down 1.56%
The local bourse recovered part of its early losses on bargain hunting yesterday, but sentiment remained overshadowed by fears that the government would impose a capital gains tax on stock investments, dealers said.
A downtrend on Wall Street overnight and the lackluster results of the latest government bond auction in Spain raised worries that further volatility on the global financial markets would create jitters for the local market, they said.
Market sentiment was further dampened by the possibility that the government might raise electricity rates, after recent hikes in domestic fuel prices became effective on Monday, they added.
The TAIEX closed down 121.03 points or 1.56 percent at 7,639.82, on turnover of NT$95.91 billion (US$3.25 billion). Since March 15, the market has fallen almost 6 percent.
Listed firms’ profit drops
Total sales posted by companies listed on the main board rose almost 20 percent in February from a year earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said yesterday.
In February, the listed companies on the TWSE posted a total of NT$1.54 trillion (US$52.20 billion), up 18.78 percent from a year earlier and also up 1 percent from a month earlier, according to statistics released by the exchange.
In the first two months of this year, these companies registered NT$3.08 trillion in sales, up 8.35 percent from a year earlier.
In terms of profitability, the TWSE-listed firms posted NT$1.11 trillion in combined pretax profits last year, down from NT$1.61 trillion in 2010, with the optoelectronics, semiconductor, transport, computer peripherals, plastics and steel sectors suffering a decline of about NT$508.1 billion in profits last year.
MOU inked with South Africa
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Bank Supervision Department of South Africa’s central bank on cooperation in the banking sectors of the two countries.
The areas of cooperation covered in the MOU include information-sharing, confidential agreements, on-site examination and risk management.
It was the second MOU inked between Taiwan and South Africa. The first MOU between the commission and South Africa’s Financial Services Board was focused on cooperation in the insurance and securities sectors.
Currently, only one Taiwanese banking institution — Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) — has a presence in South Africa, while Standard Bank is the only South African bank that has a branch in Taiwan.
Greater China area leads M&As
The Greater China area was the hottest market in the Asia-Pacific region for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of mid-scale businesses last year, according to a report published on Wednesday by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd, the world’s largest accounting and consulting firm.
Mergers and acquisitions of businesses valued at US$5 million to US$500 million in the Greater China area — China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan — accounted for one-third of such cases in the Asia-Pacific region last year, according to the report.
Transactions on mergers and acquisitions amounted to US$143.2 billion last year in the Asia-Pacific, accounting for 32.4 percent of such transactions worldwide, the report said.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.039 to close at NT$29.519.
Turnover totaled US$817 million.
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