TAIEX rallies following slump
The TAIEX recouped part of its earlier losses yesterday as bargain hunters turned active, taking advantage of low valuations after a recent slump, dealers said.
Investors rushed to buy selected high-priced electronics stocks, such as handheld device camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) and smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電), while the old economy sector suffered heavier downward pressure, led by Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) and its affiliates, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 15.91 points, or 0.22 percent, at 7,143.84, after moving between 7,066.28 and 7,158.74. Turnover totaled NT$57.77 billion (US$1.99 billion) during the session.
HTC outlook brighter: report
HTC Corp (宏達電), Asia’s second-largest smartphone maker, was raised to “overweight” from “underweight” by Morgan Stanley after the company settled global lawsuits with Apple Inc.
HTC shares gained 1.50 percent to close at NT$237.50.
“We think HTC’s competitive new devices reopen a window to share gains in the US — a key to enhancing brand awareness in other regions,” Morgan Stanley said in a report yesterday.
Next year “may not be as bad as many feared for HTC,” the report said.
The brokerage raised its target share price on HTC to NT$298 from NT$175 and also lifted its estimates for next year’s earnings per share by 42 percent to NT$23.96.
Taiwan 16th-best for business
Taiwan has made a massive leap to become the 16th-best country for business, according to the results of a survey conducted by US-based Forbes magazine.
Taiwan, which ranked 26th in a similar poll last year, only trails third-ranking Hong Kong and fourth-ranking Singapore among the Asian economies on Forbes’ 2012 “Best Countries for Business” list.
New Zealand replaced Canada to lead this year’s list thanks to “a transparent and stable business climate that encourages entrepreneurship,” Forbes said.
Denmark was second, up from fifth. Hong Kong maintained last year’s third placed ranking, Singapore ranked fourth and Canada slid from the top of the list last year to No. 5 this year, the magazine said.
The sixth-to-10th-ranked countries were Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK, in that order.
AU Optronics’ innovation award
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) said it has been recognized as one of Taiwan’s five most innovative enterprises this year.
The company, along with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科), was named on Wednesday as a winner of this year’s Thomson Reuters Taiwan Innovation Awards.
The award is granted by the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters. It is given to enterprises and academic institutions headquartered in Taiwan for their innovation in research and development.
Five academic organizations also received the award this year. They are the Industrial Technology Research Institute, National Chiao Tung University, National Chung Hsing University, National Taiwan University and National Tsing Hua University.
NT$ drops against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.017 to close at NT$29.142 as the local central bank stepped in to boost the value of the greenback, dealers said.
Turnover totaled about US$590 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