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Shares close little changed

Taiwan share prices closed little changed yesterday in thin turnover as the market met strong technical resistance after advancing in early trade following Wall Street's gains on Friday, dealers said.

They said the continued appreciation of the Taiwan dollar spurred hopes for capital inflows and also provided additional fuel to the market's early upswing, but lingering technical concerns convinced investors to sell shares in late trade.

The weighted index closed down 3.15 points or 0.04 percent at 8,156.82, off a low of 8,154.22 and a high of 8,201.65, on turnover of NT$84.23 billion (US$2.54 billion).

Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting (日盛投顧) manager Kevin Chung (鐘國忠) said the bourse extended its narrow-band consolidation ahead of the settlement tomorrow of Singapore futures contracts targeting the MSCI's Taiwan index.

"Riding on the early rises powered by Wall Street and local currency leads, investors here locked in profits because of technical pressure," he said.

ProMOS plans new plant

ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the nation's leading memory chipmaker, said yesterday it will build a fourth 12-inch wafer plant in Taiwan by the end of this year for US$2.5 billion.

"The new wafer plant will have a monthly capacity of 70,000 units. Whether the new facilities will be used to produce dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips or flash chips will depend on market conditions," ProMOS spokesman Ben Tseng (曾邦助) said.

The construction of the Houli (后里)plant in central Taiwan is expected to be completed in 12 to 13 months, Tseng said.

Local media reported the new production site will use 60-nanometer process technology, but Tseng said it was still too early to say.

Quanta gets share boost

Shares of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest notebook-computer maker, rose the most in more than seven months yesterday after Macquarie Bank Ltd upgraded the stock.

The shares increased 4.8 percent to NT$50.6 by the end of trading in Taipei, compared with a 0.4 percent gain in the benchmark TAIEX index.

The stock was raised to "outperform" from "neutral" by the bank, which said Quanta may gain orders from Apple Inc for portable music players and phones.

Quanta, a supplier to Hewlett Packard Co, Dell Inc and Apple, is diversifying into products including car navigation units to cut its dependence on notebook computers. The Taoyuan-based company is targeting non-notebook sales to make up 30 percent of total revenue next year, compared with 19 percent in last year.

Apple, the world's largest maker of portable music players, "will further develop its relationship" with Quanta, Daniel Chang, a Taipei-based analyst at Macquarie, wrote in a report yesterday. He raised the target price for Quanta's stock to NT$63.4 from NT$51.

Buyers group leaves for US

A procurement delegation led by Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬) left for the US yesterday with the aim of drumming up support in the US business community for the early signing of a Taiwan-US free trade agreement (FTA).

Prior to the departure of the delegation, which comprises procurement representatives from state-run enterprises including Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (漢翔), Huang said the group was planning to procure industrial products with a total value of around NT$11.34 billion, including Taipower's 10-year procurement plan.




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