Large caps lead TAIEX rebound
The TAIEX rebounded 0.57 percent yesterday, backed by gains in large-cap stocks, but volume remained relatively thin, as investors continued to grapple with uncertainties weighing down the local bourse and Europe’s debt crisis.
The benchmark index ranged between a high of 7,220.10 and a low of 7,164.90 before closing up 41.04 points at 7,192.23 on turnover of NT$53.59 billion (US$1.81 billion).
A total of 1,816 stocks closed up, 1,886 finished down and 518 were unchanged.
Seven of the market’s eight major stock categories closed up, with financial shares posting the biggest gains at 0.9 percent. Electronics shares, automobile stocks and energy-saving concept stocks also outperformed the broader market throughout the trading session.
Ministry to help HTC
The Ministry of Economic Affairs “will definitely provide HTC (宏達電) with appropriate assistance,” a top Cabinet official told reporters on the sidelines of a legislative hearing yesterday.
However, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) declined to give details on how and what the ministry would do, saying that since the HTC-Apple legal dispute was ongoing, the government would maintain a low profile, instead of touting what measures can and will be taken.
HTC said on May 16 that its One X and EVO 4G LTE smartphones were barred entry to the US by customs officials following an exclusion order filed by the US International Trade Commission.
HTC said on Sunday that some of its smartphones had passed inspections and had been released to its carrier customers.
Evergreen to launch new route
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the nation’s largest container shipping firm in terms of fleet scale, yesterday announced it would launch a new route between south India and the Persian Gulf on June 5.
Two 2,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessels will be deployed in the service, the company said in a statement.
The service will depart and arrive in the same city — India’s Cochin — followed by two stopovers in Sri Lanka’s Colombo and the United Arab Emirates’ Jebel Ali.
Meanwhile, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), Taiwan’s second-largest container shipper, yesterday said it had inked a contract with Hung Hua Construction Co Ltd (宏華營造) for the construction plans of the build-operate-transfer (BOT) container terminal project at Kaohsiung Harbor, bid by its subsidiary Kao Ming Container Terminal Corp (高明貨櫃碼頭).
The contract is worth NT$2.2 billion to NT$2.5 billion, Yang Ming said.
Sany gets loan commitments
Sany Group Co (三一集團), owner of China’s biggest machinery maker, received commitments from 10 banks for its US$200 million-equivalent three-year loan, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) and Tai Fung Bank Ltd (大豐銀行) committed US$17 million each, while Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) pledged US$15 million and Nanyang Commercial Bank Ltd (南洋商業銀行) provided HK$132.6 million (US$17 million), the person said, asking not to be identified.
HSBC Holdings PLC, the loan’s arranger and bookrunner, committed US$25 million, the person said.
Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Hang Seng Bank (恒生銀行), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (上海浦東發展銀行) and Taiwan Business Bank (臺灣中小企業銀行) pledged US$23 million, the person said.
NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar gained value on the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.052 to close at NT$29.578, on turnover of US$684 million.
‘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
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
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS