■ Stocks end fall despite Rebar
Shares closed 0.69 percent higher yesterday to end a two-day fall, with Wall Street's mild gains overnight triggering a technical rebound on the local bourse, dealers said.
Caution, however, remained in the financial sector, where the financially troubled Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團) continued to see weakness amid regulatory measures, they said.
Concern over bank runs at units of the Rebar Group that followed applications for restructuring by two of its members China Rebar Co (中國力霸) and Chia Hsin Food and Synthetic Fiber Co (嘉新食品化纖) and government takeovers has eased, but buying interest in the stocks remained weak, they added.
The TAIEX rose 53.30 points to 7,790.01. Turnover was NT$119.972 billion (US$3.67 billion).
Risers led decliners 735 to 429, with 213 stocks unchanged.
Rebar unit The Chinese Bank (中華銀行) lost NT$0.21 to NT$2.84 and Taitung Business Bank (台東企銀) fell NT$0.04 to NT$0.58. Both were limit-down on lingering worries after being taken over by the government.
■ Gasoline, diesel prices down
The state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) announced yesterday that it would lower wholesale prices of both gasoline and diesel products by NT$1.1 per liter. The new rates went into effect from midnight last night.
Adjusted retail prices for 98-octane unleaded gasoline were NT$27.6; 95-octane unleaded gasoline NT$26.1; 92-octane unleaded gasoline NT$25.4; and top-grade diesel oil NT$22.3, the CPC said.
The price of fuel oil is unchanged at NT$137 per kiloliter.
An hour after CPC's announcement, rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said it would lower its prices to match CPC's, effective 10pm last night.
■ UMC reports higher sales
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday said that sales last year rose 14.7 percent to NT$104.10 billion (US$3.18 billion).
The world's second-largest wafer foundry said that sales last month fell to NT$8.37 billion from NT$8.69 billion in November and were down 7.17 percent from a year earlier.
Shares of UMC closed up NT$0.10 at NT$19.80 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday as the company began construction of a new 12-inch-wafer plant in southern Taiwan.
At an Oct. 25 investor conference, UMC said it expected wafer shipments in the fourth quarter to fall 2 percent to 3 percent from the third quarter, with the average selling price likely to fall 5 percent to 6 percent in US dollar terms.
■ A buyer for BenQ phone unit?
BenQ Corp's (明基) German mobile phone business, which is in the process of being liquidated after a three-month search for an investor ended without success, could still find a buyer, the insolvency administrator said.
Insolvency administrator Martin Prager is in talks with "several potential investors," his spokeswoman Regine Petzsch said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Sentex Sensing Technologies Inc, a US maker of biometric security products, plans to make an offer for the business, German newspaper Die Welt reported earlier on Monday, citing Sentex president Henrik Rubinstein. Sentex was to present its takeover plan to BenQ Mobile's insolvency administrators yesterday, Die Welt said.
An unidentified group of investors is another potential bidder.
■ Greenback weakens NT dollar
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower against its US counterpart yesterday due to strong demand for the greenback by both insurers and foreign funds.
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