Vietnam mulls new fund
Vietnam’s regulator may help set up a fund aimed at stemming declines in the world’s worst-performing stock market.
“We are considering a proposal from investors and foreign analysts to set up a stabilization fund,” Vu Bang, chairman of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, said by phone yesterday from Hanoi.
“The idea has been raised by investment firms and foreign analysts, not by the commission like some local newspapers reported,” Bang said.
Setting up a fund to buy stocks may help support the benchmark VN Index, which has lost 60 percent this year. The State Capital Investment Corp, which manages shareholdings for the government, said in March it would buy equities in an “urgent measure” to “stabilize” the market.
Yuanta rises following report
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), owner of Taiwan’s largest brokerage, rose in Taipei trading after the Chinese-language Commercial Times said the government plans to let local securities companies invest in Chinese counterparts through third-country subsidiaries.
Yuanta gained NT$0.45, or 1.9 percent, to NT$23.80, bucking a 0.3 percent decline in the benchmark TAIEX index at the 1:30pm close in Taipei. Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金) rose NT$0.60, or 1.9 percent, to NT$33, its biggest gain since May 30.
Brokerages will be allowed to buy as much as a third of Chinese counterparts under an initial proposal, matching China’s maximum ownership rule, the report said. The Mainland Affairs Council is expected to announce the rule after approval in the weekly Cabinet meeting on Thursday, it said.
JPMorgan report helps Wistron
Wistron Corp (緯創資通) climbed the most in a month in Taipei trading after JPMorgan Chase & Co said the company was its favorite stock among Taiwanese contract- manufacturers of laptops.
The world’s third-largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers climbed 3.7 percent to close at NT$47.30, the most since May 16.
“Wistron is our top pick,” Hong Kong-based analyst Alvin Kwock, who has an “overweight” rating on the stock, said in Friday’s report.
JPMorgan increased its projections for Wistron’s earnings per share next year by 10 percent, the report said.
The broker also raised its ratings on Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) and Inventec Co (英業達) to “overweight” from “neutral,” Kwock wrote.
Taiwan-Russia seminar begins
A two-day seminar and exhibition on technological cooperation between Taiwan and Russia was inaugurated yesterday at the office of the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP), a CTSP official said.
Yang Wen-ke (楊文科), CTSP administrative director-general, and Vladislav Zinchenko, deputy governor of Tomsk Oblast, Siberia, presided over the opening ceremony of the seminar and the exhibition, which is being organized by the CTSP and central Taiwan’s Feng Chia University.
Yang said the seminar aimed to offer enterprises with operations in the CTSP a wide variety of information about the development of a special economic zone in the Tomsk region and helping the CTSP boost its competitiveness.
Stressing that the Tomsk region is looking forward to learning from Taiwan’s experience in developing industrial parks, Zinchenko expressed hope that Taiwan can help it train technological talent.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday weakened by NT$0.019 to trade at NT$30.401 against the greenback on turnover of US$722 million.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS