China may close its stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shen-zhen for the first time in their 13-year history to disperse some of China's 69 million stock investors from crowded trading halls amid the worst outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus in the world.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission is in talks with officials from the two exchanges about extending a May 1 to 9 trading halt for another week, resuming trading on May 19, said Wang Qingsong, listing manager of the Shanghai exchange.
"Retail investors are more susceptible to the virus because they gather in trading halls every day," said Yao Maogong, a trading manager at Shanghai Securities Co.
"They are not like foreign investors, who trade electronically." Yao said.
Closing Asia's second-biggest capital market is part of a government campaign to scatter the world's biggest population from public places after 3,106 have taken ill with SARS and 139 have died.
China's US$500 billion stock markets are popular with domestic investors in a country with a near record US$1.1 trillion in household savings and few investment choices.
The markets have three of the world's 20 best-performing stock indexes this year. The Shenzhen B-share index, which tracks Hong Kong dollar-denominated stocks, is the eighth-best performer, up 2.5 percent today and almost 16 percent this year. The benchmark Shanghai A-share index rose 3.4 percent.
The complete trading halt would be the first for non-holiday reasons since the exchanges were reopened in 1990 after the Cultural Revolution.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS