■ Flat-panel stocks lead decline
Stocks fell yesterday following overnight losses on Wall Street, with flat-panel stocks leading declines.
The TAIEX fell 20.38 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,148.70, on turnover of NT$53.45 billion (US$1.63 billion).
"Until there are fresh news leads, people will continue to take cues from the US markets," said Maggie Chien, a manager at President Securities Corp (統一證券).
For the two remaining sessions of the week, the benchmark index will likely trade between 6,100 and 6,250, traders said.
■ Interest rate increase expected
The central bank will probably raise its benchmark interest rate for a fifth successive quarter today to keep inflation in check as higher oil costs force pump prices higher and storm damage limits food supplies.
The bank's policy makers will probably increase the discount rate on 10-day loans to banks by a quarter point to 2.25 percent, according to six of the 10 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The other four forecast a one-eighth of a percentage point increase.
"Recent price spikes could spur inflation expectations,'' said Willis Wu, an economist at Citigroup Inc in Taipei.
The central bank is scheduled to hold a quarterly policy meeting at around 3pm today and will announce its decision at a press briefing afterwards.
■ Fishing industry to get aid
The Cabinet plans to offer a new financial program for fishermen and fishing-related organizations, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday during a weekly meeting.
The new NT$100 billion package will be offered to fishermen who need to recover from natural disasters, as well as those needing to develop and research for new fishery-related projects and upgrading their facilities.
Hsieh said that taking care of fishermen is as important as taking care of small enterprises. The financial package will be processed by the Council of Agriculture. More more details will be given by the council in the near future, he said.
■ Consumer-chip sales may rise
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said that sales of chips used in consumer electronics will rise 5 percent this year, and as much as 9 percent the following year.
He spoke to reporters at a conference organized by the company in Yokohama, Japan. Earlier this week, he said he expects the overall chip industry to grow at 10 percent a year through 2010.
■ Philips eyeing Toppoly: report
Philips Electronics is considering investing in a financially troubled Taiwanese mobile phone panel plant to consolidate Philips' role as one of the world's top three mobile-phone display panel makers, a newspaper reported yesterday.
"Philips is still talking with Toppoly Optoelectronics (統寶) about making investment or forming a strategic alliance," a Chinese-language newspaper quoted Rock Hsu (許勝雄), president of Toppoly's parent company Kinpo Electronics Inc (金仁寶), as saying. "But there are no results yet, and they won't announce the results soon."
Toppoly is a leading supplier of low temperature poly-silicon, which can be used to make small display panels that are brighter and have better resolution.
Earlier press reports have said that Philips could invest NT$5 billion in Toppoly.
■ NT continues to slide
The New Taiwan dollar continued losing ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.033 to close at NT$32.774 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$961 million, compared to US$937 million the previous day.
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