■ Share prices close lower
Share prices closed 0.65 percent lower yesterday, finding no support in a lackluster Wall Street performance overnight, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 43.33 points to 6,639.13, the day's low and off a high of 6,702.64, on turnover of NT$67.51 billion (US$2.08 billion).
Decliners led risers 587 to 328, with 139 stocks unchanged.
The market is likely to continue its rangebound consolidation in the near-term until Wall Street and regional markets provide more decisive leads, Jih Sun Securities Investment (日盛投顧) deputy manager Wilson Lien said.
■ FSC announces fraud crackdown
Starting from Aug. 1, people who make remittances of over NT$30,000 at banks will be required to go through an identity verification process by providing their identification papers with photos, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
The new rule aims to crack down on money laundering and other fraudulent activities, the financial regulator said at a press briefing.
Proxies entrusted to make remittances are required to show their identification documents as well, the commission said.
Meanwhile, the commission is mulling whether to make public the banks that have the most dummy accounts in terms of the proportion of total accounts as a way of countering fraud the commission added.
Banks that have too many dummy accounts will be penalized for their poor internal control, the regulator warned.
■ Q1 manufacturing sales rise
Taiwan's manufacturing sector booked total sales of NT$3.4 trillion in the first four months of this year, up 8.4 percent on the previous year, according to tallies released yesterday by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
Sales in the information and electronics industries amounted to NT$1.3 trillion, up 22.7 percent compared with the same period last year, with sales of electronic parts and components accounting for NT$884.8 billion, up 34.4 percent year-on-year.
Sales in the chemical industry rose 6.3 percent from last year to NT$893.4 billion owing to skyrocketing oil prices, while sales in the metal and machinery industries declined 4 percent to NT$820.4 billion.
Sales in the household products industry fell 0.8 percent because of the emigration of the production lines of some textile manufacturers.
Meanwhile, the ratio of direct manufacturing sector exports climbed 2.6 percentage points from last year to 48 percent, mainly due to an increase in the level of direct exports from the information and electronic industries and the metal and machinery industries.
■ BenQ announces job cuts
BenQ Corp (明基), less than one year after taking over Siemens AG's handset division, will axe 277 jobs in Munich and end employment for 250 contract workers as demand for its phones slides.
The cuts at the company's handset head office in Germany will mostly affect the research and development department, where BenQ plans to cut 113 positions, according to a company statement yesterday. BenQ Mobile employs 3,100 full-time workers in Germany.
BenQ plans to complete the job cuts by the end of the year it said. The 250 workers hired from sources such as temping agencies will lose their jobs in Munich and Kamp-Lintfort, in western Germany, BenQ said.
■ NT dollar falls
The US dollar gained ground against the new Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, increasing NT$0.108 to close at NT$32.455.
US$771 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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