Shares follow Wall Street dive
Share prices closed 2.7 percent lower yesterday, tracking Wall Street's latest dive, as worse-than-expected US jobs data heightened fears of a recession in the world's largest economy, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 232.01 points at 8,299.37 after moving between 8,286.57 and 8,507.29 on turnover of NT$145.76 billion (US$4.8 billion).
Hardest hit by profit-taking were stocks that had rallied previously on expectations that cross-strait relations would improve after the presidential election next Saturday, dealers said.
"Today's selling pressure was indeed a bit greater than what we expected," Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券) analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said.
"Such a belated sell-off could be best explained by Taipei's relative outperformance in previous sessions," he said.
Shih said technical analysts expected a test of near-term support at around 8,229 points, saying whether it can hold there "will determine Taipei's chances of decoupling" from the US and other markets.
CPC says stockpiles adequate
CPC Corp (中油), Taiwan, the nation's state-owned oil refiner, said its output of gasoline and diesel was enough to cover customer demand.
The company was to restart a unit at its Taoyuan refinery yesterday, adding 5,000 kiloliters of gasoline to daily capacity, CPC spokesman Liao Tsang-long (廖滄龍) said by telephone from Taipei.
Gasoline stockpiles are equivalent to 63 days of sales, he said, denying a media report that they had dropped to less than three weeks' demand.
CPC, which controls about 75 percent of the nation's gasoline and diesel market, may increase gasoline exports after the resumption of output at the Taoyuan residue fluid catalytic cracker, said Liao, who declined to confirm the number of gasoline-making units currently shut.
``Our stockpiles are at a high level,'' he said. ``We'll export if we don't want to keep so much inventory.''
The company produces 18,000 kiloliters of the fuel a day, higher than customer demand of 12,000 kiloliters, he said.
Air fares rise: survey
The prices of first-class airplane tickets in the country rose 12 percent in the fourth quarter last year from one quarter earlier, as the nation's average ticket cost edged up 2 percent quarter-on-quarter, a survey by American Express said yesterday.
First-class ticket prices to the US saw the highest growth of 19 percent year-on-year, while business class tickets rose 3 percent and economy class tickets dropped 2 percent.
The credit card issuer's business travel survey showed that air fare in the Asia-Pacific region also rose 1 percent, lower than the 3 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in the third quarter last year.
Tax removed for a year
The government has scrapped a value-added tax on imported wheat, corn, barley and soybeans, as rising food prices threaten to stoke inflation.
The tax will be removed for a one-year period, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday in a statement on its Web site.
Club members offered deal
Former chairwoman of Alexander Group (亞力山大), Candy Tang (唐雅君), said yesterday she had made a deal with several new buyers, including Action Life (亞健康), to partially honor old membership in 11 Alexander branches.
Former Alexander members will pay an extra NT$1,200 to be able to use the facilities of the newly opened Action Life, which charges new members a monthly fee of NT$3,800, she said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS