TAIEX retreats 0.36 percent
The TAIEX took a breather yesterday, falling back from a recent rally driven by the US Federal Reserve’s third round of quantitative easing, dealers said.
Trading volume shrank as some investors stayed on the sidelines amid fears that technical resistance near the 7,800-point mark would slow the market’s advance, they said.
The weighted index closed down 27.96 points, or 0.36 percent, at 7,734.26, after moving between 7,714.43 and 7,757.04, on turnover of NT$93.59 billion (US$3.19 billion).
CSC joins a Dow Jones index
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, has been added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia-Pacific Index (DJSI Asia-Pacific), making it the first Taiwanese company to be listed on the index under the basic resources category, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The Greater Kaohsiung-based China Steel joins as one of the 154 components of the DJSI Asia-Pacific Index, which the company described as a reflection of its achievements in corporate governance and commitment to sustainable development.
On Monday, flat-panel maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達) announced it was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI-World) for the third consecutive year. The company said it had been selected as one of 340 components of the DJSI-World this year.
Port design winner announced
Taiwan International Ports Corp (臺灣港務公司) on Monday announced the winner of a design competition for Keelung Port’s new terminal complex and expressed optimism that the new building would become a landmark of the port city.
The joint design submitted by Los Angeles-based Neil M. Denari Architects and Taiwanese architectural firm Fei and Cheng Associates (宗邁建築師事務所) beat 31 entries from 12 countries, the company’s Port of Keelung office said.
The office said the total budget for the new complex has been set at NT$6.2 billion. The project will break ground next year and construction of the three-story terminal is expected to be completed in 2015, while work on the complex’s office building is to be finished in 2017, the office said.
Sargent to give talks in Taiwan
Nobel economics laureate Thomas Sargent will deliver two lectures in Taiwan this week that are to touch on the eurozone debt crisis and inflation.
Sargent, who was awarded his Nobel Prize last year, is to give a talk on the “Global Economy under European Debt Crisis” in Taipei tomorrow, the event’s organizers said in a statement.
The next day, the US economist will go to central Taiwan and share his insights on inflation in a speech at Asia University titled “Inflation: New Challenge for Global Economy.”
The 69-year-old economist is a professor of economics at New York University and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
NT dollar drops on intervention
The New Taiwan lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.061 to close at NT$29.460 after the central bank intervened to support the greenback and help the currency reverse early losses, dealers said.
The continued intervention from the central bank showed the bank’s determination to slow the pace of NT dollar’s appreciation against the greenback in a bid to make Taiwan-made goods more competitive in the global market, they said.
The US unit opened at NT$29.440 and moved between NT$29.25 and NT$29.47 before the close. Turnover totaled US$846 million.
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