Buying boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX closed in positive territory yesterday on the back of rotational buying, as the construction sector was in focus after several property developers reported impressive earnings for the first half of this year, dealers said.
However, turnover remained low as many investors stayed on the sidelines, waiting for a speech from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the economy later in the day, they said.
The weighted index closed up 25.62 points, or 0.35 percent, at 7,397.06, after moving between 7,363.25 and 7,406.52 on turnover of NT$60.98 billion (US$2.04 billion).
The construction sector scored the highest gains among the eight major stock categories, finishing up 1.7 percent.
Asustek No. 1 in Q2
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) bucked the declining trend of the desktop PC market to take the No. 1 position in market share of Taiwan’s commercial desktop market in the second quarter, market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said on Thursday.
While Taiwan’s overall sales of commercial desktop PCs declined slightly in the second quarter compared with the corresponding period last year, Asustek’s commercial desktop PC sales grew 23 percent to take a 34 percent of market share in Taiwan, IDC said in its lastest PC market report on the Asia-Pacific region.
IDC said Asustek rival Acer Inc (宏碁) ranked the second-largest desktop vendor during the period.
Busy day for Keelung Port
Keelung Port set a record for daily cruise ship traffic in Taiwanese seaports yesterday, with more than 8,000 passengers boarding or disembarking in a single day.
Asia’s biggest luxury cruise ship, Voyager of the Seas, docked at the port in the early morning, said Teng Shih-chang (鄧世昌), general manager of the Port of Keelung.
The ship, operated by the US-based Royal Caribbean Cruises, brought 1,679 passengers to Keelung from Shanghai, Teng said.
The 140,000-tonne ship then embarked later in the day for Fukuoka, Japan, and Jeju Island, South Korea, carrying 3,300 tourists, Teng said.
The port was also scheduled to accommodate three other international cruise ships — the Cosco Star, the Oriental Dragon and Star Cruises Aquarius — later in the day.
E. Sun to open new branch
E. Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) said in a statement yesterday its banking unit, E. Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行), will open a new branch in Dongguan, China, on Sept. 3.
The upgrade of its Dongguan representative office into a branch is part of the lender’s expansion plan in the region, according to E. Sun Financial.
In July, E. Sun opened its first branch in Southeast Asia in Singapore. The lender currently has an office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and plans to establish offices in Myanmar and Cambodia, E. Sun Financial president Joseph Huang (黃男州) said earlier.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.02 to close at NT$29.966 as traders followed the lead of the rebound staged by the euro to buy into the local currency, dealers said.
However, despite the euro’s gains, investors remained wary of the eurozone’s debt problems amid fears that Spain will seek an all-out bailout to deal with its mounting debt, they said.
Turnover totaled US$530 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