INVESTMENT
FSC warns over broker app
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said that Tiger Brokers (老虎證券), a Chinese app-based brokerage, has made its way to Taiwan. The New Zealand-registered app offers investments in Hong Kong and US stocks, as well as China’s A-shares with a quick online account setup process. It also offers sub-brokerage fees for overseas equities market orders at less than 10 percent of the industry average. However, the service has not been approved in Taiwan, FSC chairman Lee Ruey-tsang (李瑞倉) told lawmakers at a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The commission is gathering evidence to support action over possible illegal solicitation of customers, Lee said.
STOCKS
Credit Suisse head probed
A senior executive at the Taiwan branch of Credit Suisse Group AG is under investigation for suspected insider trading. Taiwan branch president Elsa Chiu (邱慧平) is suspected of illegal trading related to the purchase of Hermes Microvision Inc (HMI, 漢微科) by the Netherlands’ ASML Holding NV, for which Credit Suisse acted as an adviser, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Credit Suisse declined to provide immediate comment and did not say whether Chiu would be removed from her post. Chiu allegedly traded Hermes shares through shell family accounts from May 24 to June 15 last year, reaping an estimated NT$21 million (US$680,382) in illegal profits. Chiu was released on bail on Monday evening and had her travel rights restricted.
AUTOMOBILES
Hotai launches C-HR
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday launched its Toyota C-HR, a subcompact crossover SUV priced between NT$899,000 and NT$1.079 million. The company, which has set an annual target to sell 140,000 vehicles, aims to sell 2,000 units of the new model this year, Hotai president Justin Su (蘇純興) said. Hotai, the nation’s largest car distributor, is to introduce luxury sports coupe Lexus LC in the second quarter and the Lexus LS in the fourth quarter.
STOCKS
TAIEX closes higher
The TAIEX closed up 15.38 points, or 0.16 percent, at 9,753.45, after moving between 9,773.49 and 9,712.5 on turnover of NT$79.668 billion yesterday. Following a lackluster performance on Wall Street, the local bourse dipped before noon, but recovered in the final 90 minutes of trading, led by large-cap electronics and financial stocks, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market. Old-economy sector stocks generally performed poorly, with the sub-indices for the cement, food, plastics and chemical, paper and pulp, and construction sectors closing lower.
TEXTILES
Eclat reports sales slump
Eclat Textile Co (儒鴻) yesterday said that sales last month declined 26.5 percent from a month earlier and 21.3 percent annually to NT$1.43 billion, marking the steepest monthly drop in the company’s history. Eclat attributed the slide to falling order volumes from international apparel brands, which amplified the decline when compared with growth in the same period a year earlier. The company said that it gave its employees additional days off during the Lunar New Year holiday this year and that the lower number of working days affected sales.
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
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