TAIEX down 0.39% yesterday
The TAIEX retreated in a mild correction yesterday as investors took cues from a lackluster trading day on Wall Street on Thursday to lock in gains posted in recent sessions, dealers said.
Certain large-cap stocks in the electronics sector came under pressure amid uncertainty over near-term market prospects in the first quarter, a traditionally slow season for global high-tech businesses, they said.
The weighted index closed down 30.85 points, or 0.39 percent, at 7,805.99, on turnover of NT$99.29 billion (US$3.42 billion).
Fifty firms list on main bourse
About 50 companies are expected to go public on Taiwan’s main board this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) chairman Schive Chi (薛琦) said yesterday.
Of the 50 new companies expected to seek listing, up to 26 will be local enterprises, Schive said.
The number of overseas-based companies seeking listing could be the highest since 2010, when such companies were first allowed to go public on Taiwan’s main board, he said.
So far, sixteen non-Taiwanese-owned companies are mulling listing, of which two are from the US and Japan, five are from Hong Kong and Macau, and seven are from Southeast Asia, he said
Passenger volume quintuples
The number of cross-strait passengers using the Port of Taichung rose by five times last year, thanks mainly to increased ferry services to and from China, according to statistics released yesterday by the port authorities.
The port received 120,000 cross-strait passengers last year, up from 20,000 in 2011, the statistics show.
This was attributed to the addition of four ferries per week between Taichung and China’s Fujian Province that year, port officials said.
Foxconn welcomes policies
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) said yesterday that it was happy to see new regulations imposed by the Indonesian government to tighten restrictions on imports of mobile phones, saying that it welcomes policies favorable to investment there.
Foxconn, owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), said its plans to invest in Indonesia remain unchanged and were still being assessed.
A Hon Hai executive said that if it decided to invest in Indonesia, it would consider in the first stage setting up an assembly plant to produce smartphones, but added: “There is no timetable at present.”
Under the new regulations that went into effect on Tuesday, imports of mobile phones can only be carried out by registered importers with special licenses from the Trade Ministry. Importers must also obtain permits from overseas brands and they cannot sell products directly to retailers, but must team up with distributors.
GlycoNex sales down 20.53%
GlycoNex Inc (台灣醣聯生技), a local cancer-medicine developer, yesterday reported its sales totaled NT$63.23 billion for the whole of last year, down 20.53 percent from the previous year. The full-year figure came out after the company released last month’s sales of NT$1.05 billion, equivalent to the amount a month ago and down 74.68 percent from a year ago.
GlycoNex’s core business is developing monoclonal antibody cancer drugs in their early stages and licensing them to pharmaceutical companies.
NT falls against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.034 to close at the day’s high of NT$29.125.
Turnover totaled about 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
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