EQUITIES
Shares climb 1.25 percent
The TAIEX climbed more than 100 points yesterday to close above 11,000 points, as investors took cues from regional market gains, and set aside rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. The bellwether electronics sector led the upturn, after semiconductor stocks rallied on US markets on Friday last week, dealers said. The TAIEX ended up 136.86 points, or 1.25 percent, at 11,079.02. Turnover totaled NT$166.398 billion (US$5.56 billion) during the session, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$14.50 billion worth of shares on the main board, the exchange said.
ENERGY
CPC lowers LNG prices
CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday cut prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for this month by an average of 10.24 percent on a monthly basis. Effective today, prices of LNG would be reduced by NT$0.86 per cubic meter, which equals a cut of NT$25.8 to NT$38.7 for households based on an average consumption of 30m3 to 45m3, CPC said. Meanwhile, prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which includes LPG for household use, industrial-use propane, butane and propane-butane mixture, would remain the same as last month, the company said. The price of LPG used in vehicles would also remain unchanged, it said.
ELECTRONICS
HTC plans staff changes
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said that it would make human resources changes after it announced layoffs at the end of last year. The company said that it would continue to optimize its organization, streamline its workforce and reduce operating costs, indirectly confirming market rumors that it would cut jobs again. However, HTC did not specify which department or the number of people who would be affected. The firm said that it believes the move is a necessary step to achieve HTC’s long-term corporate goals, promote continuous innovation, ensure creativity and return maximum value to its shareholders.
INSURANCE
Cathay Life to lower rates
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday said that it would lower the declared interest rates for its New Taiwan dollar-denominated policies to reflect changes in market interest rates, and because it expects reduced investment returns in a low-interest rate environment. Cathay Life said that it has slashed the rates for its 74 NT dollar-denominated products by between 5 basis points and 10 basis points to between 0.48 and 1.9 percent. The company said that it would maintain the rates for its US dollar-denominated policies at between 2.85 and 3 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Electric bikes drive market
Most of the world’s electric vehicles have two or three wheels, and the number of passenger vehicles is not expected to catch up soon, BloombergNEF forecast in its Electric Vehicle Outlook 2020. More than 180 million electric bikes and trikes are in use, and BNEF said that there would be almost 600 million by 2040. China accounts for the bulk of two-wheeler electric vehicles, but sales are growing rapidly in markets such as Taiwan, India and Vietnam. Last week, electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) unveiled two e-bikes in New York with a starting price of US$3,899. The company plans to start selling the two e-bikes in Taiwan, Europe and the US in the summer.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last