Stocks declined for the second day in three. Formosa Plastics Corp (
The stoppage "will cause a short-term supply disruption for many of Taiwan's petrochemical makers and hurt their profits," said Mike Shiao (
The TAIEX shed 24.65, or 0.5 percent, to close at 4,515.07. Losers led winners 526 to 125, with 84 stocks unchanged. Shares worth NT$55.4 billion changed hands, about a quarter less than the daily average in the past three months.
MSCI Taiwan futures for February delivery in Singapore declined 0.7 percent to 194.40. The Taiwan Futures Index lost 0.4 percent to 4520.
Formosa Plastics fell NT$1, or 2.2 percent, to NT$44.80. China Manmade dropped NT$0.75, or 5.2 percent, to NT$13.80.
Chinese Petroleum asked Formosa, China Manmade and other petrochemical makers to reduce their production by about a half because it is unable to supply them with enough raw material, a local newspaper reported, citing company officials it didn't identify.
Chinese Petroleum expects to restart the plant today, though it has asked its customers to "make some adjustment in their operations," said company spokesman Chen Lie-way.
"It's not a very big damage and we should be able to restart tomorrow," Chen said yesterday.
The chemical plant that was shut can process about 400,000 tonnes a year of naphtha, an oil product, into ethylene, a chemical raw material for making plastics.
Polaris Securities Co (
The new combined company will handle about 16 percent of market trading, Refco and Polaris said in a joint statement.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
TSMC closed up NT$0.80 at NT$47.80 and UMC was up NT$0.40 at NT$21.60.
Taiwan Cellular Corp (
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