Most listed firms meet reporting requirements

Almost all publicly listed companies have submitted earnings reports for the first six months to the financial authorities as required, the Securities and Futures Bureau under the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement.

As of 6pm yesterday, 673 out of 676 companies listed on the TAIEX had finished the procedure, and all 458 companies listed on the Gretai Stock Exchange market had done so, the bureau said.

Oncoprobe Biotech Inc (榮睿生物科技), a Gretai-listed company, was the only firm whose earnings report was found by the certified public accountant to be "unacceptable and [the company] needs to change ways of transaction," meaning that investors are not allowed to buy or sell shares of Oncoprobe Biotech on margin.

The negative evaluation of Oncoprobe Biotech is related to former company chairman Huang Lien-cheng (黃連城), who allegedly violated the Securities and Exchange Law (證券交易法) and has come under investigation by prosecutors.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp and the Gretai Securities Market will review 5 percent of the reports in the next three days.

The bureau's statistics showed that for the first half of the year, the nation's listed companies earned a total of NT$4.51 trillion in revenues, a 28.97 percent increase over the same period last year. TAIEX-listed companies contributed NT$3.11 trillion of that amount, marking 27.88 percent growth, while Gretai-listed firms pitched in NT$523.7 billion, recording 37.92 percent growth.

The statistics further indicated that pretax income for the companies reached NT$662.2 billion during the January-June period, a 114.56 percent jump from last year.

In a note released by HSBC Asset Management Ltd in Taiwan yesterday commenting on the earnings reports, IC designers, manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT-LCD), component makers and a few steel and construction companies had the best performance with an average growth rate above 50 percent for the first half of the year.

AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation's largest panel maker, saw the largest growth in profit, with after-tax profits jumping over seven-fold. Evergreen Construction Corp (長鴻營造) took second place with a growth rate of 519 percent, followed by U-Ming Marine Transport Corp's (裕民航運) 456 percent.

In terms of earnings per share (EPS), MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) topped the chart with EPS of NT$11.67, followed by Elite Semiconductor Memory Technology Inc (晶豪科技) with NT$11.64 and Grand Hall Enterprise Co (關中公司) with NT$7.92.

Meanwhile, amid tightening regulation and a financial scandal involving Procomp Informatics Inc (博達科技) that erupted in June, many companies have turned more cautious. Around 40 companies have downgraded their forecasts.