TAIEX down on futures selling
The TAIEX closed lower yesterday on futures-led selling as foreign institutional investors had to settle large short-position contracts on the local futures market, dealers said.
Selling focused on select large-cap stocks, in particular in the electronics sector, amid lingering concerns over a rising New Taiwan dollar. Old economy stocks also pulled back as investors locked in gains they had posted in recent sessions, they said. The weighted index closed down 64.59 points, or 0.83 percent, at the day’s low of 7,700.43, on turnover of NT$83.44 billion (US$2.88 billion).
Unpaid leave figure drops
The number of workers on unpaid leave has decreased by more than 1,000 over the past two weeks, government statistics released yesterday showed.
The total number of furloughed workers was 3,217, employed by 49 companies, as of Tuesday, the Council of Labor Affairs said.
HTC phone tops Amazon list
HTC Corp’s (宏達電) new flagship smartphone has become the best-seller on Amazon.com Inc’s cellphone sales rankings in the US, beating the likes of products from archrival Samsung Electronics Co.
Launched on Nov. 14 through mobile operator Verizon Wireless, the 5-inch HTC Droid DNA topped Amazon’s ranking in the category of best-sellers in cellphones with service plans, while Samsung’s popular 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II and 4.8-inch Galaxy S III came in second and third respectively, Amazon said yesterday.
OLED TV sales to outpace UHDs
Shipments of OLED televisions are expected to outpace those of ultra-high-definition (UHD) TVs worldwide by 2015, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) predicted yesterday.
Global UHD TV shipments will total 500,000 units this year and an estimated 3.2 million units in 2015, compared with OLED TV shipments of 50,000 units this year and 3.24 million units in 2015, it said.
The gap will widen in 2017, when global OLED TV shipments are expected to top 10 million units, well above an estimated 5.95 million UHD TVs.
Currently, only South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc makes OLED TVs, while at least five companies, including Samsung Electronics Co, Japan’s Sharp Corp and Taiwan’s AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), produce UHD TVs.
Flat-panel R&D up 11.1%
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that in the first three quarters of last year, four major flat-panel makers in Taiwan — Innolux Corp (群創光電), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) and Hannstar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) — spent a total of NT$18 billion on research and development, up 11.1 percent from the same period last year.
The ministry said the increase in R&D spending was expected to boost the global competitiveness of the nation’s flat panel sector.
Kaohsiung has highest debt
Residents in Greater Kaohsiung continued to shoulder the heaviest debt burden in Taiwan as of the end of last month, the Ministry of Finance’s “Local Government Debt Clock” showed yesterday.
Its debt totaled NT$224.13 billion at the end of last month, translating into NT$80,700 in debt per capita, ministry data showed.
The Miaoli County Government placed second-highest on the list by posting NT$68,000 in debt per person, followed by Taipei, Yilan County and Hsinchu County.
NT dollar inches lower
The New Taiwan dollar closed lower against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.043 to close at NT$29.099.
Turnover totaled US$653 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
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