EQUITIES
TAIEX rallies to day’s high
Local shares yesterday staged a conspicuous rebound to finish at the session’s high, led by electronics and financial shares. The TAIEX closed up 182.63 points, or 1.71 percent, at 10,836.91, recovering the five-day moving average of 10,744 and the yearly moving average of 10,716, on turnover of NT$139.691 billion (US$4.58 billion). Although fears of a trade war between the US and China have not fully dispersed, analysts said local shares rallied in reflection of the lowered tension as long as the US refrains from triggering new unease. The stock market is expected to stay stable and gradually climb due to relatively thin trade at a time when foreign institutional investors have started to walk away from the trading floor with the start of the summer break.
BANKING
TBB forecasts improvement
State-run Taiwan Business Bank (TBB, 台灣企銀) expects performance to improve this quarter and continue growing in the next two quarters, chairman James Shih (施建安) told an annual general meeting yesterday, adding that he expects the company’s stock price to soon rise above the face value of NT$10 per share with book value of NT$13.28 per share. TBB shares yesterday closed at NT$9.41 in Taipei trading. The company reported pretax profit of NT$0.49 per share in the first five months of this year. Last year, net profit totaled NT$5.04 billion, or NT$0.82 per share.
BANKING
OBU assets total US$203bn
The 60 offshore banking units (OBUs) of financial institutions operating in Taiwan had assets totaling US$203.156 billion as of the end of last month, down US$764 million, or 0.4 percent, from April, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The OBUs of 37 local banks held US$180.86 billion in assets, while foreign banks’ 23 OBUs held US$22.296 billion, it said. At the end of last month, the primary uses of all OBUs’ funds were discounts and loans, amounting to US$82.142 billion, or 40.4 percent of total assets, it added.
SERVICES
Synnex to acquire Convergys
New York Stock Exchange-listed Synnex Corp, in which Taiwan’s Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際) has an interest, yesterday announced that it would acquire Convergys Corp and then integrate it with Concentrix, a wholly owned subsidiary and top global provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing services. The Fremont, California-based firm said it has reached a definitive agreement with Convergys, but did not disclose financial terms. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this calendar year, subject to the approval of shareholders of both companies, regulatory requirements and customary closing conditions, the company said in a statement.
ELECTRONICS
CCIS warns of overreliance
Six of Taiwan’s top 10 corporations by net revenue are electronics companies that are part of Apple Inc’s supply chain, resulting in an overreliance on the US company, a China Credit Information Service (CCIS, 中華徵信所) report said on Thursday. Total revenue for the six enterprises, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), increased from NT$34.7542 trillion in 2016 to a record high of NT$36.1433 trillion last year, the report said.
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