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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
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
‘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