Shares of smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) suffered the steepest decline among the 813 companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) in the first eight months of this year, the exchange said on Saturday.
In the eight-month period, HTC shares fell 47.31 percent, while the weighted index on the main board rose 4.19 percent. HTC closed at NT$156.50 on Aug. 30, the last trading day in the month, after starting the year at about NT$300.
Its stock price has fallen on declining sales and the continuing prospect of stiff competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc in the high-end model market. HTC has also encountered challenges from some Chinese brands, such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and ZTE Corp (中興), at the lower end of the market.
HTC shares have continued to trend lower since the end of last month, as investors remain wary of the company’s shipments following disappointing sales last month. In the July-to-August period, HTC’s consolidated sales totaled NT$28.9 billion (US$971,500 million), leading the market to expect that the smartphone vendor will fall short of its third-quarter sales target of NT$50 billion to NT$60 billion. The stock closed at NT$131 on Friday.
Integrated circuit designer ASMedia Technology Inc (祥碩) fell 39.23 percent in the first eight months of the year on escalating competition and was the
second-biggest loser on the market among listed companies. Connector supplier Aces Electronics Co (宏致) was next in line with a 36.35 percent decline due to falling profitability.
The stock that posted the highest gains was electronics component supplier BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯), which rose 337.3 percent in the eight-month period on the back of increasing shipments to Tesla Motors, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker.
Flat panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) was next in line with a 281.25 percent rise in its share price on an improving bottom line, followed by printed circuit board producer Cheer Time Enterprise Co (晟鈦).
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
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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
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