Stocks rose yesterday, paced by China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corp (東鋼), after officials at Japan's Nippon Steel Corp and South Korea's Posco said the US might abolish import duties on steel, leading China and the EU to follow suit. Removing the tariffs could lead China, the world's top steel consumer, and the EU to follow suit, opening up a larger market for steelmakers.
The TAIEX added 35.49, or 0.6 percent, to 5,920.46. The Taiwan Futures Index added 0.4 percent to 5,934. About two stocks gained for every one that declined.
China Steel gained NT$0.10, or 0.4 percent, to NT$27.30. Tung Ho Steel Enterprise rose NT$0.50, or 4.3 percent, to NT$12.15.
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) shed NT$0.10, or 0.2 percent, to NT$49.80 following a report that the government might sell as much as NT$50 billion of bonds exchangeable into shares of state-run companies such as China Steel and Chunghwa Telecom. The sales would take place before the presidential election in March next year, the Commercial Times reported, citing Liu Deng-cheng (劉登城), the head of the Ministry of Finance, as saying.
Silicon Integrated System Corp (矽品), the world's third-largest maker of chipsets for personal computers, shed NT$0.60, or 2.4 percent, to NT$24.10 after it said Sales last month fell 22 percent from a year earlier. Sales fell to NT$1.4 billion from NT$1.8 billion. Sales declined from NT$1.6 billion in the previous month.
Fu Sheng Industrial Co (復盛), the nation's largest maker of golf club heads, rose NT$1, or 1.7 percent, to NT$60.50 after it said sales in the first 11 months rose 27 percent from a year ago.
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