Shares of Global Unichip Corp(
Global Unichip, a unit of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (
"Investors should be cautious about Global Unichip, as its price-earnings ratio reached 100 as of Wednesday," the stock exchange said in a statement, citing statistics from Global Unichip.
Global Unichip reported after-tax earnings of NT$237 million (US$7.2 million), or NT$2.4 per share, for last year.
The company's shares rose 7 percent to a record high of NT$269 on Wednesday, despite having been categorized by the Taiwan Stock Exchange as an "disposition security.".
The Taiwan Stock Exchange listed Unichip as a "disposition security" and announced on Jan. 15 that trade matching in shares of Global Unichip would be manually conducted during the period between Jan. 16 and Jan. 29.
During that time, brokers are required to collect full payment upfront from buyers who want to purchase Global Unichip shares, and ensure sellers can deliver the required amount of Global Unichip shares.
Moreover, a single broker can only place transaction in Global Unichip shares for less than NT$60 million per day, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
However, the measures have failed to stop the company's rising share prices.
The stock exchange said it would start collecting information to determine whether the company had spread false information and engaged in illegal activities to positively manipulate its share prices.
The Chinese-language Infotimes reported on Jan. 10 that Global Unichip was likely to earn NT$10 per share this year.
The company rebutted the report on Wednesday.
Global Unichip made its debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Nov. 3 at an offer price of NT$38.
The share price closed at NT$52.9 on the same day and reached NT$63 on Nov. 9.
But the company was categorized by the stock exchange as an "attention security" -- meaning that it was put on watch list -- after its stock continued to rise without interruption from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15 -- a 19 day streak that raised suspicion that it had illegally boosted its share prices.
TSMC, which owns a 43.8 percent stake in Global Unichip, said yesterday that it was surprised by the rise in the share price of its affiliate.
The world's largest contract chipmaker said its investment in Global Unichip was intended to benefit its customers using advanced technologies by delivering new products.
It said it was not an attempt to benefit from the share rise in its affiliate.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang
RSS