■ Telecom
HK drops PCCW
Richard Li's PCCW Ltd, Hong Kong's biggest phone company, will be dropped from the Hang Seng Hong Kong Large-cap Index, after its market capitalization fell more than a fifth in the first half of the year. PCCW will be replaced by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Asia's sixth-largest carrier by sales, which will join the Mid-cap Index from Sept 8, index complier HSI Services Ltd said in a press release. PCCW will remain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The decision comes because PCCW failed to meet the required market size in a half-yearly review done by HSI Services, said general manager Vincent Kwan. PCCW had HK$22.6 billion (US$2.9 billion) market capitalization as of last Friday, 60 percent of Cathay Pacific's market value.
■ Stock markets
Tokyo requires disclosures
Tokyo Stock Exchange will require its listed companies to disclose details about their quarterly earnings results in fiscal year 2004, Nikkei English News reported, without citing anyone. The exchange is requiring listed companies to provide details of sales and other data every quarter starting this fiscal year, Nikkei said. It has decided to require the businesses to disclose more detailed items for the fiscal year ending March 31, including operating profits, pretax profits and net profits. Companies that go public on April 1 or later will have to release data under the new guidelines, although the exchange will give currently listed companies a three-year grace period before making the new requirements mandatory, the news service reported.
■ Internet
Pirates won't be named
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College don't have to immediately identify students accused of illegally copying music over the Internet, a federal judge ruled. The ruling by US District Judge Joseph Tauro delays the Recording Industry Association of America's plan to sue individual users of file-sharing programs that distribute copyrighted music. The organization has filed more than 871 subpoenas in US District Court in Washington, seeking data from colleges and Internet-service providers about such users. Tauro issued a one-line ruling yesterday that the subpoenas weren't properly served in Massachusetts and granted the schools' motion set them aside. MIT and Boston College had said that they would comply with the subpoenas when they are filed in Massachusetts, not Washington.
■ Automobiles
Kia's workers will strike
Workers at Kia Motors Corp, South Korea's second-largest automaker by sales, plan a partial strike starting next week for more wages and shorter working hours, Yonhap News said, citing a union official it didn't identify. The plant will be idle for two hours each during the day and night shifts tomorrow and Tuesday, Yonhap said. On Wednesday and Thursday, the hours will double to four hours each, it said. Union workers will also refuse to work overtime, Yonhap said. Kia workers have proposed the introduction of a 40-hour workweek starting Sept. 1, with terms including a 5 percent increase in productivity. The strikes also seek an 11 percent wage increase and other conditions. The workers held walkouts for three days in July, causing the automaker to lose production of 5,800 units of its vehicles worth about 87 billion won (US$73 million).
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
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
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