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TAIEX closes slightly lower

Shares closed slightly lower yesterday as regional weakness and domestic political concerns eroded early gains led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (台積電) offer of 240 million American Depository Receipts (ADRs), dealers said.

However, the broad market encountered pressure in late trading amid weakness in neighboring markets and a note of caution ahead of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) speech on Sunday to mark the seventh anniversary of his inauguration.

The TAIEX closed down 3.82 points or 0.05 percent at 8,034.14, on turnover of NT$87.04 billion (US$2.61 billion). Decliners outnumbered advancers 657 to 457, with 224 stocks unchanged.

For the week to May 18, the weighted index closed up 2.60 percent after a 0.43 percent fall a week earlier.

Average daily turnover fell to NT$77.37 billion, compared with NT$92.06 billion.

Philips sells TSMC shares

Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest consumer electronics maker, agreed to sell US$2.56 billion worth of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares as part of a plan to free up cash for takeovers and stock buybacks.

Philips sold 240 million American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), equivalent to 1.2 billion common shares, for US$10.68 each, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Philips' stake in TSMC, the world's largest customized chipmaker, would drop from 12.78 percent to 8.13 percent when the sale is completed.

Amsterdam-based Philips expects to receive net proceeds of about 1.84 billion euros from the share sale announced yesterday.

Creditors tackle Allied Material

Allied Material Technology Corp (展茂光電), a Taiwanese color-filter maker, said two of its creditor banks have petitioned a court to have company property protected.

Allied Material received notice on May 15 of a petition filed by Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀) and Ta Chong Bank (大眾銀行), the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. It would act in accordance with the directive, the statement said.

Far Eastern and Ta Chong, which jointly own Allied Material's debt of NT$1.46 billion (US$44 million), have filed court petitions seeking a restructuring of the company, the company said on April 20. The company will reject the proposal to seek court-supervised restructuring, it said at the time.

Color filters are key components in flat-panel displays.

Alcor Micro bid denied

Samsung Electronics Co, the world's largest maker of memory chips, denied a report that it may buy a stake in Taiwan's Alcor Micro Corp (安國國際科技).

The Chinese-language Apple Daily earlier reported, without citing sources, that Samsung may purchase an unspecified stake in Alcor Micro, which plans to issue NT$70 million (US$2.1 million) of shares to investors.

"The report is groundless," Lee Soo-jeong, a Samsung spokeswoman based in Seoul, said by telephone yesterday.

Alcor Micro, based in Taipei, makes Universal Serial Bus (USB) controller chips for computer keyboards and mice.

NT dollar hits 17-month low

The New Taiwan dollar made a sixth weekly drop, and traded at the lowest in 17 months, on speculation overseas investors were borrowing the currency to invest in higher-yielding assets elsewhere.

The NT dollar shed NT$0.025 to close at NT$33.371 against its US counterpart yesterday, on turnover of US$862 million on the Taipei Forex Inc.


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