Stocks fell yesterday, led by chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) after Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein cut its recommendation for the global chip industry.
"In our travels to the East, we failed to spot any strength in actual end demand," Dresdner anal-ysts, including Janardan Menon, wrote in the note.
The bank lowered its individual recommendations on 16 chip stocks, including TSMC and UMC.
The TAIEX shed 38.12, or 0.7 percent, to 5,650.11. For the week, the index fell 1.9 percent. About seven stocks declined for every three that gained.
The futures contract for October delivery was little changed 5,687.
About 2.9 billion shares changed hands, or 37 percent below the average volume in the past three months. Shares worth NT$65.6 billion (US$1.9 billion) were traded.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) fell NT$0.50, or 1.5 percent, to NT$33.50.
Fubon sold US$225 million of bonds convertible into its shares at NT$42.33 a share, a company official said. The conversion price represents a 24.5 percent premium to Fubon yesterday's closing price of NT$34. The bonds, which mature on July 2, 2005, will give investor a yield to maturity of 0.25 percent, said chief financial officer Victor Kung (龔天行).
Inventec Co (英業達) declined NT$0.20, or 0.9 percent, to NT$22 on a Chinese-language newspaper report that Toshiba Corp may stop buying notebook computers from Inventec after a reorganization of the Japanese company's portable PC and digital camera businesses.
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